Greenovation connects farmer with remote expert

The Greenovation Advice System is the result of a Swedish research project, called ‘Distribution of methods for high-tech agriculture based on results from the project Greenovation’, which was run by Linköping University together with IBM Sweden and Vreta Kluster.

Imagery directly from the field

Farmers can use handheld sensors with which they can send imagery directly from their field to an expert, using their smartphone. The expert, who can be located anywhere in the world, can immediately provide advice to the farmer and his local advisor.

For crop analysis a portable near-field sensor with an optional spectral band, such as UV light, is used in combination with a microscope.

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The sensor combines UV light and microscopic amplification. – Photos: Per Frankelius, Linköping University

2D measuring scale

In the project a 2D measuring scale was developed, to be used in combination with the connected microscope. The 2D scale consists of 24 thin crosses with fixed spacing. Traditional scales for microscopes are linear (1D).

The choice of crosses was inspired by the reference markings used in combination with the Swedish Hasselblad camera during the first lunar landing in 1969. The idea was to have reference points spread over the image so that the farmer or advisor does not have to place the object exactly in the center of the microscope image space.

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On this microscope image one can see the reference markings inspired by the Hasselblad camera images during the first lunar landing in 1969.

Artificial intelligence

The expert can also use artificial intelligence to interpret the images. However, the IBM AI platforms are still developing, since thousands of reference images are needed.

The project has been going on for 4 years. A working prototype of the Greenovation system was tested by farmers at the Swedish Hollstad farm earlier this year. Right now, these testst are being evaluated. According to Linköping University the Greenovation Advice System is almost ready for commercialisation.

Farmer Mats Pettersson at Hollstad Farm, Sweden, was the first to test the system in the field.