About this project
Have you ever been out and about and wondered what species that beautiful plant, flower or tree is? PlantSnap is a mobile application for iOS, Android, and Windows built to help you identify plants with one snap. Simply take a picture of the plant, and PlantSnap will tell you what it is in seconds.
Powered by deep learning and artificial intelligence, PlantSnap is changing the game for plant identification. Our database is international, our results are instantaneous, and our responses will always be free.
We spent three months testing the concept and have already begun development, but we need a little help creating our sophisticated artificial intelligence-powered database. With community and gamification elements, it’s the app you won’t be able to put down in 2017.
Not only does the app help you better understand the plants that surround you – our data banks can help scientists understand plants globally. PlantSnap can be used as an educational tool in schools and colleges, and commercially in gardening and landscaping businesses. Wouldn't your job be easier if your clients already knew the names of the plants they wanted? We can also help you safely identify the plants you see, before you touch them – so you can always avoid those poison ivy rashes or nettle stings.
When you sign up for PlantSnap, you join a worldwide community of nature lovers. Now you’ll never forget to #smelltheflowers again.
Our application successfully classifies images of leaves and flowers. We have built a wealth of supporting data to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the plants you snap. And here's the big kicker: unlike other identifying apps, PlantSnap actually works – it’s powered by artificial intelligence & deep learning algorithms.
We've created this app with a wide range of users and uses in mind:
- Our database can help botanists all over the planet understand ecosystems and identify new habitats.
- Gardeners and landscapers will be able to use the technology to communicate with their clients.
- Teachers and professors will have a simple tool at their fingertips to explain nature and plant life.
- Our identification algorithm means you never need to touch potentially harmful plants again.
- We give everyone an excuse to get back to nature and take a second out of their day to #smelltheflowers.
- We have an integrated community, gamification, and added special share elements into our application to unite the plant lovers of the world.
Our algorithm is, simply put, working like a dream. Our programmers have relayed the following:
“We tested the classifier on a limited selection of leaves and flowers. A set of images for each species was divided into training and testing samples. Training sample is used to generate a recognition algorithm for each species and testing sample was passed to the classifier input. Our algorithm is able to detect most species with 100% accuracy. So basically we are feeding new, unknown images to the classifier and it's still able to recognize the species by image."
PlantSnap is currently in beta.
We need your help to build our full-featured mobile application.
The funds raised from this campaign will go directly into development. These areas of our application require further work:
- Product development: our app is bare-bones at the moment. We need to work on the product design / user experience to assure that usability is flawless when it gets into the hands of our users. We need to employ product and UX designers to take the experience to the next level.
- User Interface: our User Interface needs to be refined, which involves employing a UI consultant.
- Matching Algorithm: we need to improve our database so PlantSnap’s matching algorithm becomes more intuitive. This involves consulting with botanists, working with existing databases and field study, as well as working with our developers on the technology. The more data we have, the more intelligent PlantSnap becomes.
- AI / Deep Learning integration: This sophisticated technology does not come cheap; funds earned from our campaign will be going towards paying our development team to work around the clock to make the PlantSnap app more intuitive and relevant for your needs.
Our long-term plans are for the app to be used in schools, colleges, business and households the world over by our community of nature lovers. If we raise more than our target amount, we will also employ an audience development team to raise awareness of the app.
- Our concept is proven and we have tested PlantSnap.
- We know the technology works and that there is a large audience out there who are just waiting to use it.
- Our challenge comes from adapting our image recognition platform to recognize different shapes and sizes of the same plants, flowers and trees. We know this is possible, and we are close to cracking it.
- We are committed to developing a plant identification app that really works.
- We are very near to completion – if our Kickstarter is successful, PlantSnap could be ready and on the market in less than 6 weeks.
Your contributions small or large will help us launch PlantSnap and encourage the world to take a second out of their day to #smelltheflowers. For every donation, however small, we will mention your generosity on our social media feeds.
See our pledge graphic so you can learn what’s on offer – remember, all of these rewards are exclusive for our Kickstarter friends. You won’t find them anywhere else, and be warned that they come in short supply.
Several of you have asked how you can get your hands on a second premium download of the app (or a third or fourth to give as gifts). We’ve decided to make that possible! We’re introducing this as an add-on option – available to those who have pledged at the $20 reward level (or more). If you add $10 more to your pledge, you can get another premium download of PlantSnap! Here's how it works:
1. Click the blue 'manage' button above. The button is located below where it says "You're a backer" and to the right of your pledge amount. If you have not pledged yet, it will say 'back this project'.
2. Click 'change your pledge'. Increase your pledge in the 'Pledge Amount' box by the amount needed to claim the add-on(s).
3. Save your pledge. Do not change the tier that you originally pledged at, unless you also want to change it while you are on this screen. You will then need to add the total of your add-ons onto the amount of the new tier you chose.
Eric Ralls is a serial entrepreneur. A psychology and international business graduate, he has honed his skills in the tech world since 1998, merging the latest innovations with his love for the planet.
The idea for PlantSnap came to Eric several years ago in a friend's backyard. When he saw a plant which neither he nor his friends could identify, a seed was planted in his mind. He was sure that many other people had encountered the same problem and concluded that “there should be an app for that.” Fast forward four years, and technology has caught up with Eric’s idea. We are asking for a little help from you to make that seed of an idea a big, beautiful flowering tree of an app.
Join our social networks so we can get to know each other better: Twitter, Facebook & Instagram.
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Risks and challenges
During research we found certain limitations:
• Many plant species have similar leaves, which makes it difficult to classify them. We have the technological solution – but it’s going to take a little bit more money.
• Training and classifying images can be a CPU-heavy operation. We will need to set up multiple, scalable servers.
• Classification quality can be improved in many ways. Our plan is to reserve some funds for further research in this area.
Your continued support will help us grow our app so that everyone, everywhere can sit back and appreciate their surroundings and #smelltheflowers a little more.
The funds raised from this campaign will go into developing the application including: product development, UX/UI, matching algorithms, artificial intelligence, deep learning integration, and database architecture and creation.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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The free version has advertising, the premium will be ad free! Think of your donation as going towards not only the app but the development of it as well. Without your donations there would BE no premium app, and you'd be forced to suffer through ads. ;)
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You can always snap the photos offline, but the image analysis is done by comparing your photo to our database of plant images, which requires interaction with our servers - through either data or wifi.
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Our database will cover every plant on the entire planet…over 220,000 species. And yes- this includes herbs - fruits and veggies too! If it's in Kingdom Plantae, our app will have it!
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We've got a package SPECIFICALLY for you - it's our $20 "What A Dill" Package - the 4th one down. Even though we aren't able to ship most of our rewards worldwide, we DEFINITELY want everyone on the planet to be able to snag the app - so we created this just for you!
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NO! We're creating our app for the purpose of being usable in the field, and having to carry a sheet of paper with you at all times would certainly be a hindrance.
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Yes! Our plant descriptions will be thorough and DEFINITELY include that sort of important information. There's a lot of foraging/scavenging going on these days which is awesome - and we want to be an app that helps with that!
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At first only English, but we will continue adding languages as time goes on - beginning with Spanish, German, French, Russian....and so on!
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Legit question, though it's tricky to answer. All weeds ARE plant species. So, the app will tell you what species it is, as well as whether or not it's invasive. For instance - some folks LOVE dandelions, and some consider them weeds. Whether it's a weed or not is entirely up to you. Hopefully with the info PlantSnap will provide about the plant you'll be able to determine if the average joe thinks it should or shouldn't be in your yard. But beauty is subjective! :D