About LeafBit Agriculture Imaging

Quality results start with quality imagery.  

Image capture involves the physical capture of the images using an a drone, that will be used to extract plot data.

The main factors involved in capturing high quality images are:

• Flight timing.  This involves setting up the capture events so that light and wind conditions line up with the desired crop stage, or days after treatment application.

• Equipment Parameters.  These include drone height, speed and camera selection and settings.  These factors are managed to get best quality imagery, without creating impossibly large data packages.

• Efficient  Communication and coordination with growers, research technicians and data managers improves reliability and project success.

• Image delivery.  There are many ways to deliver and manage data packages, from cloud services, to physical memory cards.  We can accommodate most methods.

Images from the drone must be organized and processed before they are ready for data extraction.

The way the images are handled depends largely on how you plan to use the data.

The main factors in post flight data processing include:

• Single image vs. ortho-mosaic data extraction.  Different software have different ways of extracting data from images, which can affect how data is handled and delivered. 

• Trial Grouping and Sorting.  Some software requires you to keep individual trials separately, while others allow you to lump them all together, and then separate them later in the process. 

Effective data collection means converting the images into numerical measurements and ratings.

There are a few different ways to extract data from images, which will depend on the camera/sensor used and the insights you would like to gain.  Each data extraction methods has specific applications.

There are multiple sensors that can be used for agricultural research.  RGB sensors offer crisp, higher resolution images that can be used to detect visible traits and multispectral sensors can detect processes within the plant that might not be visible to the human eye.

Some examples of RGB data include:

• Plant counts for row planted crops

• Row fill for air seeded crops

• Ground cover or leaf area index for measuring early season vigor, or damage to plots.

• Greenness ratio, which can measure stress or plant senscence.

• 3D models can be used to extract plant heights.

Some examples of multispectral data includes:

• NDVI and NDRE values, which indicate plant health and the level of photosynthesis and chlorophyl levels in plants.

Some measurements can be valuable as single ratings, and others are better used as multiple measurements over time, to create growth curves.

Overall, your research goals will help you decide what measurements to extract and when.

When starting a drone program for the first time, there is often a verifcation process where we compare the drone data to the ground data collected with traditional methods.  This is often called "ground-truthing".

We help setup programs that will bring ground based data together with aerial image data to help understand which imagery data correlates with which ground data.

Getting full value from drone imagery means integrating the data with traditional sources within your current databases and analysis software.

These programs and processes are typically unique to your company or industry, so it's important to make sure they are compatible with data extracted from imagery.  

 We can help manage data export and import processes to get the data to where it needs to go.

Image analysis projects have many parts, which are not always clear from the beginning.  It can help to have an experienced guide help you get off to a good start.  

We provide consulting and project management services that are aimed at getting your company some quick wins, and set you up to build confidence in the technology and a successful long term image analysis program.

If you are not sure what your needs are, or where to start, we can provide expert advice and a framework that you can take to company executives or finance managers to gain support and confidence in your program.