Scientists create app that holds promise for biometric developments
04 May, 2011
category: Biometrics
John Kress, a research botanist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, along with Peter Belhumeur and David Jacobs, two computer scientists from Columbia University and University of Maryland respectively, have developed an application for the iPhone that identifies plants and provides information on them from only an image taken on the phone, according to a Smart Planet article.
The technology powering the new app has much of its imaging roots based in biometric technology due to the backgrounds in face recognition technology and other biometrics both Belhumeur and Jacobs have.
What makes the technology driving this app, called Leafsnap, different, though, is that due to similarities of many different leaf shapes, the database it utilizing highly detailed leaf images to compare images taken to and presenting users with ranked results of what the leaf is expected to be.
It is the very technology, however, that Jacobs expects could improve imaging technology in the future as it helps emphasize the comparing of two shapes hoping for definite answers to whether or not they match.
Read the full story here.