Zenbot is a zen garden that you can interact with remotely via a desktop application and a robotic arm, which holds a small rake. One or more users at a time can connect to it over a network, raising, lowering, and moving the rake around the garden. Zenbot is an attempt to imagine a tech startup that takes the commodification of leisure time to an extreme end: meditation disembodied and outsourced in the name of convenience. Some inspiration was taken from The Telegarden.

Client and server software were built in OpenFrameworks. X/Y mouse coordinates are sent from client machine to server machine as OSC messages over a network, causing the arm to move. Clicking and releasing the mouse lower and raise the rake.

Zenbot server code via GitHub
Zenbot client code via GitHub

The server and client apps use the ofxOsc addon by Hideyuki Saito. The server app also uses the ofxMyIP addon by Satoshi HORII, and code for interfacing with the uArm written by Aman Tiwari.