Future iPhone app may identify trees from photos

Apple should consider coming up with new appllication on how to track a stolen iphone instead of putting up some random apps or start offering insurance APPLE! I wouldn't buy anymore iphone, we are talking a lot of $$$ vs. some cheap cellphone where you can use it for day to day needs.

This could be an amazing advance – allowing all sorts of researchers the chance to groundtruth aerial and satellite imagery on the cheap by involving armies of volunteers – even kids!

This is a good idea, but the camera in the current iphone does not take close-up shots very well, so this wouldn't work very well. But, there are lots of well informed rumors saying that the next iphone model will sport an autofocus 3.2 megapixel camera. This should allow for decent close-up shots and the app should work great. I am sure hoping that this is the case for the next iphone model. Oh, and it will finally do video recording! Let's cross our fingers.

to xzBit – the new iPhone 3.0 software includes a built-in feature that allows you to track the location of your iphone using an application on Me.com. Until then – hang on to your phone!

That Python skit "How to Recognize Different Types of Trees From a Long Way Away" comes to mind:
No. 1: The larch. The larch. The...larch.
No. 2: The horse-chestnut.
(And of course in the photo above: the...palm.)

I would use such an app. Identifying trees and birds are two things I want to do most often in relation to nature.

xzBit: These apps are not developed by Apple, but by 3rd parties. Learn a bit about iPhone apps before posting, please.

Thanks for the responses!

JKT: I feel you. Plants are sometimes difficult to identify, but knowing them really helps you get familiar with an area.

Robert S: Interesting point. I don't know how much the camera quality matters. I do know that this pilot app mostly looks at the outline of the leaf, and then puts that up against a database (which, with citizen input, would become much more robust) to identify the species.

Animals would be more difficult - although not necessarily impossible - to identify in this manner, the researchers said.

Thanks again for reading. Let me know if you have further questions.

John / CNN.com

Who cares!!!! There are so many crappy iPhone apps out there already, one more doesn't make any difference.The Apple Kool Aid drinkers will suck this one up as well, but it's just another mindless piece of crap.

A group of students, including myself at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have recently completed a working program that has this functionality. It could be easily ported to the iPhone, since the neural network logic is hosted on the server side.

We decided to make the project Open Source, and it currently runs on Google Android.
It will be hosted shortly at: http://pbotanist.sourceforge.net/

A group of University Of Illinois graduate students have also developed a similar project using a type of pattern recognition algorithm integrated with the Android OS. It uses a standard JSON API that could be used on any platform (mobile or otherwise).

University and Maryland and Columbia University could review what we have already devised for some ideas. We will soon be opening up our research to Source Forge under GPL.

http://www.portablebotanist.com/
http://pbotanist.sourceforge.net/ (pending approval)

We've been working on a similar program for the Android
http://portablebotanist.com/

Thanks for the comments. I wasn't aware of the "Portable Botanist" app for the Google Android. Sounds cool. Those of you who are working on it: Would users be able to upload the data they collect (the type of plant and the locations) to a public database? Is that a hope for the future, or is it more of an educational tool?

Thanks again for the good discussion.

–John / CNN.com

How about a app that identifies apples.

How about other practical applications of this technology? Imagine being able to instantly identify the plant which produced the berry that your child just swallowed and whether it is toxic or not. Or being hungry and instantly able to tell which plants around you are edible.

I can't wait for this app to come out! I'm constantly poring through books looking for identification, not only of trees, but flowers, birds, you name it. I hope someone is developing one like this (or rolling the capability into this one) to identify birds and plants as well. And for birds, identify not only by their looks but by their songs. If Shazam can do that for music, why not have something that can do it for birds?

P.S. to the iPhone camera haters: My 3G phone takes good close-ups - I just took a wee flower that was poking out of some chain link fencing, and it's beautiful! And my long-distance shots are good and clear, too. Not publication-worthy, but certainly capable of doing what this app promises to do.

[...] I was researching iPhone apps for the crafting world and came across this news item for a future iPhone app that will let you take a picture of a tree and then will identify it for you. How rad is that? When that happens it will be great, but until [...]

The results from this app will be superficial at best. Plants are classified by their reproductive parts (flowers and fruits), not their leaves. Plant taxonomy generally requires analysis of many morphological features that develop at different times of the year and can't be captured in one photo. Furthermore, plants that are not even in the same family can have very similar leaves. Here's a test: Take leaves from an apple tree (genus Malus), a pear tree (genus Pyrus), and a shadbush (genus Amelanchier native to the eastern US). Close your eyes and mix them up on the table. Can you identify them again?

First to be able to identify trees with the camera – that's AWESOME! Great JOB!

Second:
A company named "Malus Pumila" developed the world's first
"Baby Translator" for the iphone/ipod touch recently. It's just a joke it looks like, but man – everything on this little device!
http://bit.ly/cNXGw

So to "A botanist in Connecticut" you may be right (you probably are) but a superficial knowledge is far better then no knowledge. If my daughter eats a berry, I’ll sample the plant, and take it with me to the hospital immediately, along with my daughter under any circumstance. The thing about the leaves is I might not be able to tell Pear leaves from apple leaves, but a computer would. If there is one thing computers can do its identifying patterns, who knows if this app catches on and gets some financial interest, it could evolve.
But more importantly with an app like this a walk in the woods would just be so much more fun. It just opens up the world so much more.
I was going to get a winmo Phone (a HTC leo when it comes out) but now I´m actually considering getting an Android powered phone instead.

As a landscape designer, I think this application would be great! The application might not be able to identify the exact species, but it would at least give a person an idea as to what type or types of plant it could be. I'm excited to see what it can do!