Up and running!

After what has seemed like an endless battle, we have finally being trialing the camera in the glasshouse! The camera allows us to have a 360 degree view of the growing area, as well as being able to pan in on a specific plant at a pre determined time of the day. This is especially useful to us as we track plant growth as part of our "Crop Recognition" program. 

The capture of any images can be cross referenced against the Priva Integro climate control graphs and will allow observers of the system to look at what the plants are doing, and see what the climate is providing in terms of heating, ventilation, humidity, and CO2 levels. There is also a direct link to the Priva Integro settings so that climate strategies can be examined in detail.

The initial page that we have been developing for the trials is shown above so that it can give you all an idea of what the final product is likely to look like. 

How have we been going?

For those of you who have been watching this site on a regular basis, you will have noticed the general serenity of the site - or rather the lack of updates! Well like a swan, we have had the serene look on top whilst running like mad under the water!

We have been looking at several options for our webcam and we have now come up with the solution.

Powerplants Australia have established a system for us that will enable us to view the Tomato Crop in a number of ways. The camera itself allows us to not only gain a generic view of the crop but to zoom in on specific areas. The software will also allow us to take pictures of specific plants as precise times each day. This will greatly assist us with our crop registration process.

We have also been working on getting the Priva Integro data relayed to an external site. This has seen us utilising our standard remote access medium of "logmein" with additional software that we are developing.

In the next couple of weeks we should have the full system up and running which will allow students to view climate data as well as remotely being able to move the camera around to gain vision of specific crop areas.