New Delhi, Jan 18. (PTI): The jury may still be out on the legendary Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose's assertion that plants do "feel pain" and even "understand affection," but through a new system developed by a group of University students in New York, a 'thirsty' plant can now call the owner on the cellphone and ask for help.

In fact, a person too can call the plant from his phone and know if it needs watering.

The project 'Botanicalls' developed by a team of students at New York University opens a new channel of communication between plants and humans, in an effort to promote successful inter-species cohabitation and understanding, say its developers.

"What we are trying to explore in this project, is how plants and people can relate on a more personal level. We have applied technology as an assistive tool to open up the channels of communication," team leader Kati London told PTI in an e-mail reply from New York.

This is how the system works -- Each plant has a micro-controller embedded in it with a separate identification number, and when a plant's soil goes dry, the whole system gets activated, and the particular plant can place a phone call to its owner and ask for support.

According to London, the team-members made a conscious decision to use voice as opposed to text (i.e. email or SMS) as the main form of communication between plants and people because of its inherently personal nature.

The team members who come from various backgrounds like communications, horticulture and computer networking, came up with the idea when they thought of the survival of the plants within their department-- Interactive Telecommunications Program.

"High-paced technologists seldom have time to stop and smell the flowers, let alone water them. But, what if, we wondered, the plants could call us and tell us what they needed when they needed it? If they assigned us tasks, would this alter or engages us," says a team member.

London used her horticulture experience to select plants, create botanically-accurate 'voices' for each of the plants, and analyze and translate their specific needs to system-recognizable values.

"One of the most challenging aspects was bridging communication between the physical and virtual worlds," says London.

This involved connecting a wireless network to a phone system and figuring out how to orchestrate protocols between multiple systems.

London says that the project could be tailored for commercial or educational applications, but it may take some time before everybody understands the system.

But interest has been generated according to its creators. "Many people have expressed interest in owning a version of Botanicalls for their personal use. Now that we have created a basic working system, we are developing a modular version intended for small-scale use," says London.