Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,

I am in need of urgent advice for my science fair project which is using Aerial Photo Analysis.
(link to project - https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... is#summary)

I am uncertain on how to analyze data from images of grass and dirt (second part of the project) and how to analyze data from real world images (additional part). I am not quite sure how to collect the green coverage percentage as there is no definite peak in the histogram, unlike the histograms of plain colors. I need urgent help for this project as it is due soon.

I would also appreciate additional information on how this data can relate to how aerial images can fine variations in agricultural crops.

Thank you for your time.

Hi jr808,

Images of grass and dirt may not have well-defined peaks in the histograms. The example photos shown in figure 2 of the project background section and figure 6 of the procedure section have histograms that may be typical. The histogram means for the grass and dirt images in figure 2 are clearly different. So you might try using the means from your histograms of grass and dirt as the cut-off values for calculating pixel percentages as discussed in the procedure.

This kind of image analysis could be used to find out crop growth rates, fertilizer effectiveness, weed control, etc. You might want to try an online search on “agricultural imagery” to find more information about aerial photography applications. Also, there are some great articles listed in the project bibliography.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman