For my project, I wanted to recreate the movement of a Mimosa Pudica. This plant’s leaves, when touched, close up and eventually reopen.  For my prototype, I want to practice creating the shape of the leaves and flowers in paper first.  By doing this, the aesthetic part of the project will be figured out. To get a grip on the moment, I am going to use techniques used in pop-up books.  I was think of placing a pull tab at the end that one could pull and push to make the leaves open and close.  I might also use the arduino to turn the flowers on and off by using the switch (made of copper tape) that we learned to make in class. 

      I want this to be interactive, so that its just not a beautiful thing that moves on its own.  I was thinking of going two ways with this.   At first i wanted a person’s touch to move the leaves, but I think it will be more subtle if the touch turns on an LED within the flowers.  So a touch switch that turns on the flowers would be one.  The other idea I have is a motion sensor (or some type of sensor) that turns on the flowers when movement or a presence is detected. It would act like the flower is acknowledging the person and giving consent to be played around with and to be touched.  

      I could also play around with the consent part.  By using the arduino and a code similar to the magic 8 ball, the plant could decide if it wants to be played with or not. (MAYBE, just a thought)