In recent years, there has been a growing interest in outdoor activities, urban gardening, gardening, and botany in general. As a direct consequence of this, apps that identify plants and flowers through simple image capture have become popular. These apps breathe new life into the experience of walking through the woods, viewing houseplants, or noting common plant specimens. This article reviews how apps operate, their benefits, drawbacks, and the role they play in botanical scholarship and biodiversity conservation.
Transform the functioning
A plant identification app is designed to allow botanists to identify plants immediately by photographing them and analyzing the capture. Companies collaborate with universities, herbalists, professional biologists, and other botanical experts to develop straightforward algorithmic identification.
Strengths
1. Access opportunity
The app is a new and popular way to identify plants. It is inclusive, purposefully learning-oriented and highly accessible.
2. Environmental education and awareness
Plant identification apps also play a significant role in environmental education. By using these apps, users learn more about the plants around them and, in doing so, develop a greater awareness of the importance of biodiversity and environmental protection. Many apps also provide information about plant ecology, their role in ecosystems, and why it is essential to preserve them, which can encourage responsible practices and respect for nature.
3. Tool for scientists and researchers
Plant identification apps are not just for hobbyists. This gives scientists and researchers the opportunity to enhance a useful tool. Many of them can use this service in the field, where immediate species identification can be essential. In addition, many apps allow users to upload their observations, thus forming a collaborative database useful for scientific studies on species distribution, biological invasions or climate patterns.
4. Regular updates and collaboration
Additionally, the popularity of these applications also encourages their ability to self-update more quickly. The machine learning algorithm can learn to identify a plant better and better the more users use its service. In addition, the relationship between users allows for efficient communication through an active community that exchanges information and enriches the database, contributing to the even greater reliability of such an algorithm.
Challenges and disadvantages
Despite all the advantages, it should be noted that plant identification apps also have several challenges and disadvantages.
These applications, despite good progress, still have their limitations. It is not always possible to guarantee correct plant identification. The problem may be:
1) Image quality.
2) The growth stage of the plant (for example, a non-flowering plant may be more difficult to identify).
3) There are very similar plants.
Therefore, it is clearly necessary not to rely solely on the application, especially in situations where it is necessary to be 100% certain, such as in the case of the plant being potentially toxic.
Another challenge is the high-tech technology: high-quality smartphone camera, internet data connection. In remote areas, the quality of the internet signal may be low or absent. In addition, it is worth noting that the application's consumption is sensitive to intensive use of the camera and image processing, implying the rapid loss of the smartphone's battery.
Language and regional barriers
Although many apps are multilingual, it is still possible that the app may not work properly when speakers of rare languages are traveling to other areas where the flora has not been properly studied. This does not exclude cases where an app does not carry all the information needed to identify a plant, as long as there are local plants.
Ethical and privacy issues
Even ethical issues are linked to the application, due to the collection of images and location data. Aspects of such information by developers must ensure the security and transparency of use, as well as make the user aware of what type of use is made of the data provided.
Impact on conservation and study of biodiversity
These apps have a significant impact on biodiversity conservation and research. The ability to more easily identify plants helps increase knowledge about local and global flora, which indirectly supports the protection of endangered species and combats biodiversity loss. In the same way that citizen science brings people together, the ability for users to take photos or add notes about their location and other observations will also be able to contribute to mapping species distributions and detecting new or invasive plant species. In short, professional and amateur science are joining forces in the effort to conserve biodiversity.
Conclusion
Plant identification apps are inherently expensive technological innovations. Of course, they have challenges to be solved, such as low identification accuracy and other issues related to artificial intelligence. However, the rapid growth in the use of such apps and the rapid future development provide great hope for development. In the future, these apps will provide an excellent and interesting tool for nature lovers, gardeners, students, and scientists, allowing them to easily recognize and learn about plant diversity.
