Abstract
The patent’s assignee is ePlant Inc. (Los Altos, California, United States).News editors obtained the following quote from the background information suppli ed by the inventors:“Monitoring the health of plants is a necessary part of mai ntaining a safe and healthy yard, farm, home-stead, forest, or other plant-covere d area. Typically, plant health monitoring relies on visual inspectionby expert s who can identify the presence of pests, diseases, or other stressors, based on qualitative symptoms.In addition to visual inspection, plant-based sensors, su ch as dendrometers, can be used to obtainquantitative data about the health of plants. However, these methods of plant health monitoring are onlyaccessible to experts who have substantial experience in identifying symptoms or interpreting sensor dataforexample, a new homeowner, wanting to monitor the health of unfa miliar trees on his or her property,would have difficulty performing these moni toring methods with confidence. Furthermore, these monitoringmethods involve si gnificant effort, physical proximity to the plants (to perform visual inspection s orsensor readings), and a high likelihood of error when performed by both exp erts and non-experts. Theseare additional deterrents that prevent individuals f rom properly monitoring the health of their plants.
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