The lawn has increasingly become a discrete artifact suspended within electronically controlled surveillance and maintenance systems. The white picket fence has become but a prop for a laser beam or camera and the lawn is littered with sensors that trigger many effects. Infrared sensors discriminate between intruders and pets or falling leaves. Temperature, water, and humidity sensors buried at different levels of the lawn control the sprinklers, which can also be turned off by rain or freeze sensors. Lights are activated by motion detectors or photocells that pick up dusk and dawn.
Magnetic sensors detect vehicles on the driveway and microphones monitor noise levels.
The lawn has already entered cyberspace. The stan-dard floodlight that turns on when it detects motion on the lawn also sends a signal into the house, calls the inhabitants or the neighbors on the phone, or alerts private and public security services. The readings on the sensors littered around the lawn, including video images, can be monitored over the phone or by modem. Even the maintenance of the grass can be controlled from afar. The space of the lawn has expanded indefinitely.