Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.


If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

Measurement of Growth Information of a Strawberry Plant Using a Natural Interaction Device

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2012 Dallas, Texas, July 29 - August 1, 2012  121341108.(doi:10.13031/2013.42055)
Authors:   Satoshi Yamamoto, Shigehiko Hayashi, Sadafumi Saito, Yoshiji Ochiai
Keywords:   machine vision, natural interaction device, growth information, strawberry, movable bench system

This paper details a measurement procedure for acquiring growth information on strawberry plants, such as height, width, volume, leaf area, leaf inclination and leaf color using a relatively inexpensive natural interaction device (NID). An NID is a motion-sensing device that is mainly used as a game controller, for example, Microsofts Kinect sensor, that can detect the movements of players by means of a color camera and depth sensor. It captures RGB images of 640 x 480 resolution along with per-pixel depth information. We installed an NID on a circulating-type movable bench system for strawberry cultivation. Since all the plants pass under the NID during the cultivation system, color and depth images of all the plants can be obtained. Using an image-processing method based on grayscale matching, color and depth images of every bench were smoothly tiled. Whole-leaf regions for every bench were then derived. To analyze the color and depth images in the whole-leaf regions efficiently, image-processing software was developed to extract and map the growth information on strawberry plants on the movable bench system. To evaluate the accuracy of our measurement procedure, we compared the actual data on height, width, and leaf area with their estimated values. The results showed each coefficient of determination to exceed 0.8. The maps created revealed significantly local biases of plant growth that varied according to strawberry cultivar.

(Download PDF)    (Export to EndNotes)