Evaluation of the identification ability of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China

doi:10.17520/biods.2019272

Abstract

Abstract:

Smart phone and artificial intelligence technology development has led to various plant recognition softwares on mobile applications. These applications have gradually entered all aspects of public life, popular science activities, and scientific research activities. Presently, there are many plant recognition apps in China, which have varying development purposes and application scopes. Among these differences include variation in software concerns, database sources, algorithms, and hardware which could implicate large discrepancies between apps, making it important to analyze and evaluate the accuracy, scope of application and potential use of each software. In this paper, eight apps were selected to identify 400 accurately identified plant photos, 100 photos being chosen from arid and semi-arid zones, temperate zones, tropical zones, and subtropical zones, respectively. In total, these photos belong to 122 families, 164 genera and 340 species, covering five growth forms of trees, shrubs, herbs, herbaceous vines and woody vines, as well as 23 national protected plant species. Accurate identification of species, genera and families was scored 4, 2 and 1 points, respectively. The software recognition ability was sorted according to total scores, and the results are as follows: HuaBangZhu, Baidu-Shitu, HuaBanLv, XingSe, Huahui-Shibie, Zhiwu-Shibie, Faxian-Shihua, Flower Recognition.

Key words: Plant recognition software, HuaBangZhu, Baidu-Shitu, HuaBanLv, XingSe, Huahui-Shibie, Zhiwu-Shibie, Faxian-Shihua, Flower recognition

Zhanhui Xu, Shiyao Liu, Ying Zhao, Wenqin Tu, Zhaofeng Chang, Entao Zhang, Jing Guo, Di Zheng, Jun Geng, Gaoying Gu, Chunpeng Guo, Lulu Guo, Jing Wang, Chunyang Xu, Chuan Peng, Teng Yang, Mengqi Cui, Weicheng Sun, Jiantan Zhang, Haotian Liu, Chaoqun Ba, Heqi Wang, Jingchao Jia, Jinzhou Wu, Cui Xiao, Keping Ma. Evaluation of the identification ability of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2020, 28(4): 524-533.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2019272

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2020/V28/I4/524

Figures/Tables 5

Fig. 1 Total score ranking of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China

Fig. 2 Score ranking by climate zone of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China

Fig. 3 Score of identification result of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China for different growth forms

Fig. 4 Identification results of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China for different growth forms (a) Ratio of species identified; (b) Ratio of genus identified; (c) Ratio of family identified.

Fig. 5 Identification results of eight commonly used plant identification application softwares in China for national protected plants (23 pictures in total)

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