{"id":4100,"date":"2011-05-02T14:49:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T18:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=4100"},"modified":"2011-05-02T14:49:17","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T18:49:17","slug":"electronic-field-guide-created-in-iphone-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=4100","title":{"rendered":"Electronic Field Guide Created in iPhone App"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_4102\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4102\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Leafsnap.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4102\" title=\"Leafsnap\" src=\"http:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Leafsnap.jpg\" alt=\"Leafsnap screen image (Leafsnap, iTunes Store)\" width=\"200\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Leafsnap.jpg 200w, https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Leafsnap-101x150.jpg 101w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4102\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Leafsnap, iTunes Store)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Columbia University in New York, the University of Maryland in College Park, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. have created a tree identification guide called <a href=\"http:\/\/leafsnap.com\/\">Leafsnap<\/a> that operates as a smartphone app. The guide is available free of charge for the <a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/leafsnap\/id430649829?mt=8\">Apple iPhone<\/a>; Android and iPad versions are planned for later this year.<\/p>\n<p>This electronic field guide allows users to identify tree species simply by taking a photograph of the tree&#8217;s leaves with the iPhone&#8217;s camera. The guide&#8217;s software then uses a visual search\/recognition algorithm to match the leaves to its database.<\/p>\n<p>Leafsnap returns the species name, as well as high-resolution photographs and information about the tree&#8217;s flowers, fruit, seeds and bark. Currently, Leafsnap&#8217;s database includes the trees of the northeastern U.S., but it will soon expand to cover the trees of the entire continental United States.<\/p>\n<p>Columbia computer scientist Peter Belhumeur told the university&#8217;s magazine <a href=\"http:\/\/news.columbia.edu\/record\/2402\"><em>The Record<\/em><\/a> last month that a leaf\u2019s shape is its least variable feature and easiest to capture in a photo. Thus, the team focused on characteristics like smooth versus jagged, many-lobed or single-lobed. They then wrote a search and evaluation routine to rank the images by most- to least-similar, and eliminate the images least similar.<\/p>\n<p>Users of Leafsnap\u00a0 will also be contributing their discoveries to the larger scientific community. As people use Leafsnap, the app will automatically share their images, species identifications, and the tree&#8217;s location with other scientists. These scientists will then use the information to map and monitor population growth and decline of trees nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=2053\">New iPhone App Offers HIV Drug Info<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Columbia University in New York, the University of Maryland in College Park, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. have created a tree identification guide called Leafsnap that operates as a smartphone app. The guide is available free of charge for the Apple iPhone; Android and iPad versions are planned for later this year. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[109,86,64,26],"class_list":["post-4100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ventures","category-products","tag-computer-science","tag-engineering","tag-life-sciences","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4100"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4106,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4100\/revisions\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}