Welcome to Virtual farmer. Virtual farmer utilises the power on the internet of things to empower the next generation of farmers and accelerate their transition into agricultural managers. Agriculture formed the foundation of our civilisation almost ten thousand years ago. Throughout that time farmers have experienced countless stages of automation from the horse drawn plough, to the tractor. Today farmers across the world are facing new challenges, changing climates are transforming our aribal lands, competition and efficient production methods are pushing food prices down and automation is replacing more jobs then ever.
User experience
Augmented reality
Populated farm hologram with data.
Ashlee
Ben
Personas In this senario, the users are four agricultural students. Virtual farmer provides a platform through which users can manage real farmland via reciprocal teaching. This playful learning tool is intended for use alongside an agricultural course.
Daniel
Julian
Create a user portfolio. Virtual farmer paired with automated technologies makes it possible to manage multiple farms at once.
Host other virtual farmers to learn together and optimize your portfolio.
Join a community of farmers from across the globe. Share knowledge and tackle challenges together.
Use augmented reality to manage your farms and connect with virtual farmers anywhere in the world.
Manage a portfolio of farms from your profile.
Host multiple users on your profile.
Become part of a network of virtual farming profiles.
Manage your portfolio anywhere in the world.
User Interaction Using augmented reality you can interact with you farm using four organic command systems. These interactions allow you to navigate the interface, confirm commands and manipulate your virtual farm.
Voice control
Head cursor
Gestures
Remote
Key infomation
Overview of feature 1268x720 per eye Cursor
(Concise info on selected feature)
(circle indicates selection)
Hierarchy Weather
(Sky)
Livestock/ crops
Scroll menu
(Land) Soil
(terrain) Features selection panel (Weather, crops, livestock, and soil)
Update indicator
Live data
Immediate alerts
(VF will text the user)
Gesture controls
Click
Double Click
Drag
Zoom-in
Zoom-out
Swipe up
Swipe down
Swipe right
Swipe left
Swipe diagonally
Rotate
Hold
Confirm
Deny
Draw
Snapshot
Host guest
Object manipulation
Rotate
Drag
Zoom-in
Zoom-out
Draw
Hold
Create profile Immediately after loading the user is required to set up a profile. The user can either set up manually or connect using their Gmail or Linked in accounts. Selecting the options will cause a traditional ‘Sign up’ screen to pop up.
Navigate with the head cursor
Select with gestures
Select with remote
“Sign up with Gmail” (User can use voice command).
Top menu From here the user can select a farm by ‘air swiping’ left and right. The user can also manage their portfolio by adding/removing farms and collaboraters. Furthermore a virtual farmer can look at an overview of the whole portfolio or a single farm and adjust user settings. Select a farm by clicking on it or by zooming into it...
Farm selection Here the user can scroll through their farm portfolio and select which one they wish to work on. The top left displays infomation relevant to the farm in real time. Any meaningful infomation for the farm is listed as a cloud from the cursor. You can investigate your farm on four scales:
Weather, crops, livestock and soil.
Weather The weather governs the life of a farmer. To be sucsessful you have to adapt to a changing climate, and understand the relationship between the seasons and your land. In recent times these challenges have become greater, extreme conditions make it more difficult to maintain arable land. Virtual farmer can use satellite data and met office infomation to not only inform you but also predict weather patterns based on emerging trends.
Real time weather tracking
Predicts trends and adivce
Severe local weather warning
Arable farming There are a myriad to sophisticated methods for tracking the health, growth and threats to crops in modern agriculture. Virtual farmer utilises these established methods and provides meaningful infomation and an intuitive manor. A farmer doesn’t need to know that his crops are healthy, or anything that can’t be accounted for automatically. Virtual farmer reduces the data down to what is useful.
Soil and field analysis, Planting, Crop spraying, Crop monitering, Health assessment.
multispectral imaging
Satalite imaging, GPS
Soil sensors
Pastoral farming Livestock requires large investment both financially and in time. Already there are many automated processes for managing a farmers lifestock. Virtual farmer provides the opportunity to link these and care for your animals digitally on a macro scale.
Wearable tech
Health monitoring impalnt
GPS
Virtual fencing
Pastoral farming (On site) Using augmented reality, farmers will be able to identify specific animals in real time. This speeds up diagnoses of illness and makes it easier to track your livestock.
Immediate indentification
Faster response
Virtual fencing Every year British farmers spend billions on fence and wall maintenance, virtual fencing removes the need for physical barriers completely. Virtual fencing takes advantage of wearable tech using collars with GPS and digitally established paddocks. Animals approaching the perimeter set of a high pitch sound with directs them away into the field.
Savings
Soil management Recent studies have shown that urban soils are actually higher in arable qualities then rural soils due to intensive agricultural activity. Our ability to produce food is reliant on the health of the land. Virtual farmer puts together a range of modern soil analysis techniques to provide meaningful visual data.
Runoff
Soil chemistry
multispectral imaging
Soil/ field analysis, irrigation.
GPS, irrigation, topography.
Water retention.
Cultivating As more equipment becomes automated the farmer no longer has to be on the field to cultivate the land. This relieves an aging demographic of hard physical labour and thanks to new lighter automated equipment reduces compaction. By using multiple data streams virtual farmer can work out the best peramiters, optimum yield and request permission to automatically cultivate the land. The farmer can also adjust the suggestion if they feel they could make improvements.
Informed cultivation
Improved yield
Reduced compaction
Reduced physical demand