Article by Aybige Tek What’s out there in terms of a landscape architecture app for the profession ? We take a closer look at Pl@ntNet and explore its capabilities. The smartphone application Shazam has solved a lot of problems for those of us trying to identify the name or artist of a song we hear playing when we are out and about. What if there were a Shazam for plants? These is – it’s called PlantNet. Download the application with its tiny green leaf logo and get started.
What is Pl@ntNet?
Pl@ntNet is a crowd-sourced data application for iOS and Android systems that features the collaboration of both horticulture experts and regular people who just want to know what plants they are looking at. Farmers, foresters, hikers, mountain climbers, ecologists, researchers, botanists, landscape architects, and customs officers are among those who find it helpful. Users share images and make contributions to a global plants platform. The app’s visual recognition program identifies plants by referencing a world botanical database. In July 2016, this application already had more than 44,700 plants listed, including pictures of 900 species. Users can save searches in their observation folders, so their images are recognized and defined by this application system. Also, plants are listed in alphabetical order, like in an encyclopedia. This is done in two sections: families of plants and species of plants. WATCH >>> Pl@ntNet Mobile App (ACM Multimedia 2013 Demo Track)
Here are Some Other Frequently Used Plant Apps
There are some similar applications that identify plants and flowers, such as Plantsnap, LikeThatGarden, Flower Checker, Plantifier, Leafsnap, NatureGate, Ipflazen, and GoogleGoggles. Each is known for a particular specialty:
- Plantsnap: Lets us identify and buy the plants.
- LikeThatGarden: Lets us identify plants and also shows us similar plants.
- Flower Checker: Real botanists help us to identify plants and also moss, fungi, and lichen.
- Plantifier: People from mygarden.org identify plants.
- Leafsnap: Identifies trees.
- NatureGate: Identifies plants, fish, birds and even butterflies.
- Ipflazen: Identifies plants and flowers.
- GoogleGoogles: This is not directly about plants. However, some examples identify plants and work from the image.
How Is Pl@ntNet Different?
First of all, we download the application and see its logo. When we press the logo, we are welcomed with four regions of the planet Earth: Western Europe, Indian Ocean, South America, and North Africa We can either load an image of the plant we are searching for and wait for its recognition, or we can go from the name of the plant to get more information about its region and qualities.The application also connects to Wikipedia for the basic definition of the content data of plants. If the images that are taken show in detail the organs of the plants, the result is easier to obtain. The whole application creates the big picture of the evolution of plants in the whole wide world. This makes this application almost the best – it’s just missing North America. When a user takes a photo of a plant he wants to identify, the application gives options to choose from, such as leaf, flower, fruit, or bark. The more images taken, the more information can be accessed. It is a databank of a lot of patterns for even one kind of plant. Application users rate the submitted images according to the quality and confirmation of the information about the plants. Images that receive three stars are collected in the “observations” section of the application. Please check this link for a step-by-step guide on how to use the application and for some extra tips: WATCH >>> Inria – Pl@ntNet, the application that helps people identify plants
Why is This the Best Landscape Architecture App ?
Pl@ntNet is the best application because it involves the general public and shares the collective knowledge of everyday experts. It is the best application so far because it is still being developed and enriched by its users. Once all the regions in the world are recorded, this data will show us the big picture of the information that is being collected collaboratively by people just like you and me. What other landscape architecture app. can you recommend and why do you find them useful?
Landscape Architecture App Details:
Name: Pl@ntNe Developer: Scientists from French research organizations such as Cirad, INRA, Inria, and IRD and the Tela Botanica network. Sponsor: Agropolis Foundation Recommended Reading:
- Becoming an Urban Planner: A Guide to Careers in Planning and Urban Design by Michael Bayer
- Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design With Nature by Douglas Farrs
Article by Aybige Tek
Published in Blog
