Plant identification field guide coming to iPhone and more

The National Science Foundation is working on a plant identification guide for the iPhone and other portables, reports the Times:

The field guide, now in prototype for iPhones and other portable devices, has been tested at three sites in the northeastern United States, including Plummers Island in Maryland and Central Park in New York, said W. John Kress, a research botanist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, who is also on the research team. The computer program compares the leaf snapshot to a library of leaf images.

"We believe there is enough information in a single leaf to identify a species," he said. "Our brains can't remember all of these characteristics, but the computer can."

I want this yesterday. Many of the plants in Oregon are new to me, and I often forget to snap a picture of them for lookup later when I'm stumped. Chris Coldewey nails the sci-fi reference: this is fundamental tricorder stuff.

8 Comments

Alan

#1 – 10:37 AM May 11, 2009

This would be great even for people familiar with the flora in their area; there's always something new when going on a hike. If this works well, then it'll be something I'll get for sure.

Avi Solomon

#2 – 11:17 AM May 11, 2009

This is a great example of the Pareto principle at work. A startup called Aerulean is working on this too:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=x0GaAAAAEBAJ

A more exacting 'Tricorder' option for plant identification might be like those embodied in the following devices:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13254871/Microfabricated-bioprocessor-for-integrated-nanoliterscale-Sanger-DNA-sequencing

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13254883/Development-and-evaluation-of-a-microdevice-for-amino-acid-biomarker-detection-and-analysis-on-Mars

HeruRaHa

#3 – 11:28 AM May 11, 2009

please tell me we get a version for the google g1.... damn iphone gets all the good apps....

Anonymous Anonymous

#4 – 12:11 PM May 11, 2009

...will it help me differentiate between a particular type of mushroom and it's poisinous cousin/s...?

drtwist

#5 – 1:11 PM May 11, 2009

Want....so....bad...

if it had a bird guide in it too

Alan

#6 – 2:47 PM May 11, 2009

@#4 - Never ever eat a wild mushroom unless an expert tells you okay, and even then, they may make you sign a waiver in some cases. There's no way I'd trust a computer/internet database to tell me if a mushroom were safe.

Marci Radbil

#7 – 1:37 PM June 10, 2009

Any idea when this app will be ready?
Not that I'm impatient but it will be soooo cool.
Thanks for working on this one!

Hillari

#8 – 1:51 PM June 10, 2009

Waaaaaaaant! If it's half as cool as the iBird app (which is orgasmically fantastic), I'll totally get it!

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Plant identification field guide coming to iPhone and more

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