Claims
- 1. A process for determining the health of crops in a field and for correcting deficiencies in the health of the crops, comprising the steps of:
georeferencing aerial photographs of at least a portion of said field, said aerial photographs having a particular spatial resolution; preparing a relative greenness map of the field providing crop status information having spatial resolution equivalent to the spatial resolution of said aerial photographs; converting said relative greenness map to a nitrogen recommendation map having spatial resolution equivalent to the spatial resolution of said photographs; and applying nitrogen to said field according to said nitrogen recommendation map, whereby said nitrogen is applied to said field without loss of spatial information.
- 2. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 1, including the step of establishing, in a field in which the health of the crops is to be determined, at least one predetermined reference area of crops having a determined nitrogen content.
- 3. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 2, wherein the steps of establishing a nitrogen reference area includes the step of applying a predetermined quantity of nitrogen to crops in said reference area.
- 4. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 3, wherein said determining the green plane in said photograph includes the step of differentiating soil and green plants, in the photograph thus obtained.
- 5. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 4, wherein the step of differentiating soil and green plants includes the step of segmenting images to select crop pixels while discarding soil pixels.
- 6. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 1, wherein the step of determining the green plane in said photographs includes differentiating soil and green plants by segmenting images to select crop pixels while discarding soil pixels.
- 7. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 6, including the steps of segmenting red and near infrared planes to determine the overall coverage of crop in the field.
- 8. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 1, including the steps of taking aerial photographs of the field and basing said relative greenness map upon greenness values relative to said reference.
- 9. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 8, wherein said aerial photographing step includes taking a plurality of pictures in sequence, and piecing said photographs together to form a composite of the field.
- 10. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 9, including the step of establishing reference points in said field to improve GPS accuracy.
- 11. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 9, including establishing reference points to facilitate the formation of a composite photographic representation of said field.
- 12. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 1, wherein the step of applying nitrogen includes applying nitrogen to said field in accordance with said greenness application map in georeferenced areas of nitrogen deficiency.
- 13. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 1 including the step of photographing from the air using a particular spatial resolution.
- 14. A process for determining the health of crops in a field comprising the steps of:
georeferencing aerial photographs of at least a portion of said field, said aerial photographs having a particular spatial resolution; and preparing a relative greenness map of the field based upon a nitrogen reference area, said relative greenness map including relative greenness values and having a spatial resolution equivalent to the spatial resolution of said aerial photographs.
- 15. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 14, including the step of establishing, in a field in which the health of the crops is to be determined, converting said relative greeness map directly to a nitrogen recommendation map based upon the relative greeness values.
- 16. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 14, including the step of establishing, in a field in which the health of the crops is to be determined, applying nitrogen to said field according to said nitrogen recommendation map.
- 17. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 16, including the step of establishing, in a field in which the health of the crops is to be determined, at least one predetermined reference area of crops having a determined nitrogen content.
- 18. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 17, wherein the steps of establishing a nitrogen reference area includes the step of applying a predetermined quantity of nitrogen to crops in said reference area.
- 19. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 14, including the steps of taking aerial photographs of the field and basing said relative greenness map upon greenness values relative to said reference.
- 20. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 19, wherein said aerial photographing step includes taking a plurality of pictures in sequence, and piecing said photographs together to form a composite of the field.
- 21. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 20, including the step of establishing reference points in said field to improve GPS accuracy.
- 22. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 20, including establishing reference points to facilitate the formation of a composite photographic representation of said field.
- 23. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 14, wherein the step of applying nitrogen includes applying nitrogen to said field in accordance with said greenness application map in georeferenced areas of nitrogen deficiency.
- 24. The process for treating crops in accordance with claim 14, including the step of photographing from the air, georeferenced portions of said field, using a particular spatial resolution.
- 25. A process for determining the health of crops in a field comprising the steps of:
georeferencing aerial photographs of at least a portion of said field, said aerial photographs having a particular spatial resolution; preparing a relative greenness map of the field based upon a nutrient reference area, said relative greenness map including relative greenness values and having spatial resolution equivalent to the particular spatial resolution; and converting said relative greenness map directly to a nutrient recommendation map based upon the relative greenness values.
- 26. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 25, including the step of applying, in a field in which the health of the crops is to be determined, nutrient to said field according to said nutrient recommendation map.
- 27. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 26, including the step of establishing, in a field in which the health of the crops is to be determined, at least one predetermined reference area of crops having a determined nutrient content.
- 28. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 27, wherein the steps of establishing a nutrient reference area includes the step of applying a predetermined quantity of nutrient to crops in said reference area.
- 29. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 28, wherein the step of differentiating soil and green plants includes the step of segmenting images to select crop pixels while discarding soil pixels.
- 30. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 25, including the step of taking aerial photographs of the field and basing said relative greenness map upon greenness values relative to said reference.
- 31. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 30, wherein said aerial photographing step includes taking a plurality of pictures in sequence, and piecing said photographs together to form a composite of the field.
- 32. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 30, including the step of establishing reference points in said field to facilitate global positioning accuracy of photographed areas of the field.
- 33. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 30, including the step of establishing reference points in said field to facilitate the formation of a composite photographic representation of said field.
- 34. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 33, including the steps of applying nutrient to said field in accordance with said greenness application map in georeferenced areas of nutrient deficiency.
- 35. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 30, including the steps of segmenting red and near infrared planes to determine the overall coverage of crop in the field.
- 36. The process for determining the health of crops in accordance with claim 25, including the step of photographing from the air, georeferenced portions of said field, using a particular spatial resolution.
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/129,564, filed on Aug. 5, 1998 and entitled “A Method of Determining and Treating the Health of a Crop”; which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/948637, filed on Oct. 10, 1997 and entitled “Method for Monitoring Nitrogen Status Using a Multi-spectral Imaging System.”
Continuation in Parts (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09129564 |
Aug 1998 |
US |
Child |
09728102 |
Dec 2000 |
US |
Parent |
08948637 |
Oct 1997 |
US |
Child |
09129564 |
Aug 1998 |
US |