A Mobile Application for Plant Recognition through Deep Learning

It is a simple task for humans to visually identify objects. However, computer-based image recognition remains challenging. In this paper we describe an approach for image recognition with specific focus on automated recognition of plants and flowers. The approach taken utilizes deep learning capabilities and unlike other approaches that focus on static images for feature classification, we utilize video data that compensates for the information that would otherwise be lost when comparing a static image with many others images of plants and flowers. We describe the steps taken in data collection, data cleaning and data purification, and the deep learning algorithms that were subsequently applied. We describe the mobile (iOS) application that was designed and finally we present the overall results that show that in the work undertaken thus far, the approach is able to identify 122/125 plants and 47/50 genera selected with degrees of confidence up to 95%. We also describe the performance speed up through the use of Cloud-based resources.