#18ThingsVRMightBe: Farming Analytics
Visualization Tools for the Aspiring Future Farmer
This post is part of a series on Eighteen Things Virtual Reality Might Be
Farming and agriculture is about as far away from traditional conceptions of virtual reality as possible. I usually imagine a headset strapped to the face of a kid playing video games or maybe, maybe, an office worker using VR for work. Not a farmer.
In that case, farmers-as-VR-users is a good place to start this series.
Like any meaningful application, let’s ask “What are some things that farmers worry about?”.
- Crop or animal health
- Crop rotation and soil nutrients
- Bugs
- Water
- Weather
- Keeping their equipment running
- Supply and demand of their crops or animals
Internet of things (IoT) and sensor technologies are allowing for more granular data, a per-few-feet to per plant level of data. Rather than driving a nail into a plank of wood by driving a car over it, you can use a more appropriate hammer.
A Possible Solution: Visualization Tools
Let’s pull some technologies together.
All the dimensions. Three dimensional space doesn’t always translate well to two dimensional space. The world and fields are three dimensional, but the screens they’re displayed on are two dimensional.
Sensors of the corn. With cheap sensors embedded in the fields, data collection becomes easier. Data integration and visualization exists, but I haven’t seen anything as immersive as virtual reality can be.
Drones. In addition to or in lieu of the sensors, drones can be used to fly over fields collecting visual scans, infrared scans, and data for 3D renderings.
Add those together and you have virtual reality based data visualization. First, if you’re not a farmer, imagine you are one. Second, imagine looking out onto your fields, being able to scale yourself so you can either get a close-up look at your crops or get a birds eye view by scaling out.
Next, just like in Google Maps, add or remove layers of information. Select from your drone’s 3D render, infrared rendering, data from national and local services (e.g. weather, nearby crops), bug populations, nutrient distribution, or any of the other layers of data from the embedded sensors your crops.
With this level of detail, farmers can get a deeper understanding of their land and crops. As farmers use their new tools, they’ll be able to see hidden patterns and respond accordingly. They’ll use fewer resources more effectively.
Costs. More data leads to better crop yield. Large farms can easily afford the large amount of sensors. For smaller farms, the value proposition might not always be enough. But should they find the data useful, a small sensor kit mixed with a reasonably-abled mobile phone could run the whole system for — and this is only an educated guess — under $1,000.
And if not now, it will be feasible in a couple years.
Hat tip to Nathanael Johnson of Grist and Steve Lohr of the New York Times. Their articles informed my own.
It’s hard for the public to start thinking about diverse applications of VR without examples beyond entertainment. And for many, they still don’t know what VR is. Here, my solution for farmers is a possible solution. The goal of this series is to inspire broad imagination, not to always create fleshed out ideas. Comments encouraged. Please share or recommend this article if you liked it.
