Plant-O-Meter – low-cost portable multispectral optical device for precise plant status assessment

Precise plant status assessment is one of the biggest challenges for agronomists, farmers and horticulturists. The human eye can notice certain changes in the plant such as curly leaves, yellow or brown leaves, or specs on the plant, but it is usually too late at that time. BioSense has developed Plant-O-Meter, a device that observes plants outside the visible part of the spectrum and is able to notice if they are under stress and how healthy they are.

Plant-O-Meter analyzes the plants by sequentially emitting pulse trains of different wavelengths (infrared, red, green and blue) from its multispectral source and on its detector, receives a spectrum that is reflected from the plant. Over 100 measurements for each wavelength are averaged and sent via a bluetooth connection to a smartphone that calculates more than 20 optical vegetation indices and georeference the measurement results. As a result of this procedure, maps of all available optical vegetation indices by Plant-O-Meter are generated. This type of maps represents valuable information used to create fertilization prescription maps, predict yield, determine the level of chlorophyll in plants, notice changes in vegetation on time and much more.

Plant-O-Meter is suitable both for handheld and agricultural machinery applications, and thus has a wide range of potential users. Potentially low price in the market and simple use combined with precise mapping of crop status make this device a reliable and affordable solution for small and medium-sized farmers who want to apply the concept of precision agriculture.

Projects:

DIATOMIC Digital Innovation Hubs boosting European Microelectronics Industry H2020-ICT-2016-2017/H2020-ICT-2016-2MIMA, Diatomic

Development of the device for measurement and mapping of nitrogen as the most important parameter in sustainable agriculture, contract no. 114-451-2794/2016-03, funded by Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia.