Tracking multiple objects using intensity-GVF snakes

Active contours or snakes are widely used for segmentation and tracking. Multiple object tracking remains a difficult task, characterised by a trade off between increasing the capturing range of edges of the object of interest, and decreasing the capturing range of other edges. We propose a new external force field which is calculated for every object independently. This new force field uses prior knowledge about the intensity of the object of interest. Using this extra information, this new force field helps in discriminating between edges of interest and other objects. For this new force field, the expected intensity of an object must be estimated. We propose a technique which calculates this estimation out of the image

Visible foliar injury and infrared imaging show that daylength affects short-term recovery after ozone stress in Trifolium subterraneum

Tropospheric ozone is a major air pollutant affecting plants worldwide. Plants in northern regions can display more ozone injury than plants at lower latitudes despite lower ozone levels. Larger ozone influx and shorter nights have been suggested as possible causes. However, the effects of the dim light present during northern summer nights have not been investigated. Young Trifolium subterraneum plants kept in environmentally controlled growth rooms under long day (10 h bright light, 14 h dim light) or short day (10 h bright light, 14 h darkness) conditions were exposed to 6 h of 70 ppb ozone during daytime for three consecutive days. Leaves were visually inspected and imaged in vivo using thermal imaging before and after the daily exposure. In long-day-treated plants, visible foliar injury within 1 week after exposure was more severe. Multivariate statistical analyses showed that the leaves of ozone-exposed long-day-treated plants were also warmer with more homogeneous temperature distributions than exposed short day and control plants, suggesting reduced transpiration. Temperature disruptions were not restricted to areas displaying visible damage and occurred even in leaves with only slight visible injury. Ozone did not affect the leaf temperature of short-day-treated plants. As all factors influencing ozone influx were the same for long- and short-day-treated plants, only the dim nocturnal light could account for the different ozone sensitivities. Thus, the twilight summer nights at high latitudes may have a negative effect on repair and defence processes activated after ozone exposure, thereby enhancing sensitivity

Automatic analysis of biological images

In order to assist scientists with tests that demand quantitative image analysis, we have developed several computer vision techniques (CVT’s) to automate the outlining of objects in images or videos. Our work has been done for samples at macroscopic and microscopic scales. Image data sets employed in our experiments include in-vivo and in-vitro samples of animals and plants

A novel system for spatial and temporal imaging of intrinsic plant water use efficiency

Instrumentation and methods for rapid screening and selection of plants with improved water use efficiency are essential to address current issues of global food and fuel security. A new imaging system that combines chlorophyll fluorescence and thermal imaging has been developed to generate images of assimilation rate (A), stomatal conductance (gs), and intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) from whole plants or leaves under controlled environmental conditions. This is the first demonstration of the production of images of WUEi and the first to determine images of gs from themography at the whole-plant scale. Data are presented illustrating the use of this system for rapidly and non-destructively screening plants for alterations in WUEi by comparing Arabidopsis thaliana mutants (OST1-1) that have altered WUEi driven by open stomata, with wild-type plants. This novel instrument not only provides the potential to monitor multiple plants simultaneously, but enables intra- and interspecies variation to be taken into account both spatially and temporally. The ability to measure A, gs, and WUEi progressively was developed to facilitate and encourage the development of new dynamic protocols. Images illustrating the instrument's dynamic capabilities are demonstrated by analysing plant responses to changing photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD). Applications of this system will augment the research community's need for novel screening methods to identify rapidly novel lines, cultivars, or species with improved A and WUEi in order to meet the current demands on modern agriculture and food production. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology

Evaluation of Oil-Palm Fungal Disease Infestation with Canopy Hyperspectral Reflectance Data

Fungal disease detection in perennial crops is a major issue in estate management and production. However, nowadays such diagnostics are long and difficult when only made from visual symptom observation, and very expensive and damaging when based on root or stem tissue chemical analysis. As an alternative, we propose in this study to evaluate the potential of hyperspectral reflectance data to help detecting the disease efficiently without destruction of tissues. This study focuses on the calibration of a statistical model of discrimination between several stages of Ganoderma attack on oil palm trees, based on field hyperspectral measurements at tree scale. Field protocol and measurements are first described. Then, combinations of pre-processing, partial least square regression and linear discriminant analysis are tested on about hundred samples to prove the efficiency of canopy reflectance in providing information about the plant sanitary status. A robust algorithm is thus derived, allowing classifying oil-palm in a 4-level typology, based on disease severity from healthy to critically sick stages, with a global performance close to 94%. Moreover, this model discriminates sick from healthy trees with a confidence level of almost 98%. Applications and further improvements of this experiment are finally discussed