🌱 Plante

🏆 Best Designed Award – uOttaHack 8 2026

A gamified, pixel-art smart plant monitoring system with AI chat, Raspberry Pi sensor integration, and real-time farm management.

Devpost | Demo Video

✨ Features

• 🎮 Pixel-Art UI – Retro-styled interface using PICO-8 color palette and NES.css
• 🤖 AI Chat Assistant – Gemini-powered chat with voice synthesis (ElevenLabs)
• 📊 Live Sensor Data – Real-time temperature, humidity, and soil moisture from Raspberry Pi
• 📸 Pi Camera Feed – Auto-capturing plant photos with pixel-art filters
• 🔔 Smart Notifications – In-app and SMS alerts via Twilio
• 📈 Weekly Pulse – AI-generated weekly insights about your plants
• 🏆 Gamification – XP, levels, achievements, and leaderboards
• 🔐 Google Auth – Secure authentication with NextAuth.js

🚀 Quick Start

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys

# Start development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000

🔧 Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env and configure:

Variable	Description
MONGODB_URI	MongoDB connection string
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID/SECRET	Google OAuth credentials
NEXTAUTH_SECRET	Random secret for sessions
GEMINI_API_KEY	Google AI API key
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	Voice synthesis API key
TWILIO_*	SMS notification credentials
RASPBERRY_PI_*	Pi sensor API configuration

📁 Project Structure

├── app/                  # Next.js App Router pages & API routes
├── components/           # React UI components
├── lib/                  # Core utilities (auth, db, twilio, AI)
├── hardware/             # Raspberry Pi scripts & Arduino code
│   ├── api/              # Flask API for sensor endpoints
│   ├── sensors/          # DHT, soil moisture, camera modules
│   └── motors/           # Hatch/watering motor controls
├── hooks/                # React custom hooks
├── types/                # TypeScript definitions
└── docs/                 # Feature documentation

🛠️ Tech Stack

Category	Technology
Framework	Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript
Styling	Tailwind CSS, NES.css, CSS Modules
Database	MongoDB with NextAuth adapter
Auth	NextAuth.js (Google OAuth)
AI	Google Gemini API
Voice	ElevenLabs TTS
SMS	Twilio
Hardware	Raspberry Pi 4, Arduino, DHT22, Pi Camera, 2x SG90 Servos, SparkFun Soil Moisture Sensor, 9V Battery, Power Module, Breadboard

🧪 Development

npm run dev          # Start dev server
npm run storybook    # Component library (port 6006)
npm run test         # Run Vitest tests
npm run lint         # ESLint
npm run build        # Production build

🌡️ Hardware Setup

See hardware/README.md for Raspberry Pi setup:

1. Install dependencies: pip install -r hardware/requirements.txt
2. Configure hardware/config.json with GPIO pins
3. Start sensor API: python hardware/api/app.py
4. Enable systemd service for auto-start

� Documentation

• docs/features/AUTH.md – Authentication setup
• docs/features/CHAT.md – AI chat integration
• docs/features/NOTIFICATIONS.md – SMS/push notifications
• docs/features/MONGODB.md – Database schema
• hardware/SETUP.md – Pi hardware guide