Have you ever wanted to know what tree you were looking at while hiking or in the park ?
Well now you can thanks to Leafsnap which is a new application launched by Columbia University. The application, which was proposed by the 8 year old son of a professor at the university, can match a picture of a tree's leaf to a database and tell you the type of tree it came from.
The system works by referencing a vast library of photos and comparing the leaves by certain characteristics , such as the smoothness of its surface, whether it is lobed or single lobed and the shape of the leaf.
So next time you are out and about and want to know what tree your looking at, take a photo of one of its leaves and use the Leafsnap application to identify which tree it came from. It's quite a novel and interesting idea for an application and one that could eventually evolve into a full augmented reality application.
Leafsnap is currently available to download for iPhone and iPad and will launch for Android smartphones later this year.
