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Phone-Based Measurements Provide Information About the Health of Forests


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Measuring tree growth with smartphone LiDAR sensors.

The algorithm provides an accurate measurement of tree diameter, an important measurement used by scientists to monitor forest health and levels of carbon sequestration.

Credit: University of Cambridge (U.K.)

An algorithm developed by researchers at the U.K.'s University of Cambridge can measure tree diameter accurately and nearly five times faster than manual methods using low-cost, low-resolution smartphone LiDAR sensors.

Measurements of tree diameter at chest height are used to assess forest health and carbon sequestration levels.

The algorithm, incorporated into a custom-built Android app, can estimate trunk diameter from a single image, generating results in near-real time.

The algorithm was trained using image processing and computer vision techniques to distinguish trunks from large branches and determine the direction the trees were leaning, among other things.

From University of Cambridge (U.K.)
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Abstracts Copyright © 2023 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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