New camera to make crop disease detection easier and less expensive

Multi-award winning product consultancy Wideblue has designed a low cost camera which will be used in agriculture to test for early onset disease in various crops including potatoes and soft fruits. The Hyperspectral Crop Camera (HCC), costing under £1000, is capable of taking images across a wide continuous spectrum of wavelengths of light, In the case of the HCC prototype this was in the visible wavelength region. However, the same technology within device could also be applied to non-visible wavelengths such as short wave infrared. The device uses a Linear Variable Filter (LVF) rather than a traditional diffraction grating (similar to a prism). The LVF is a narrowband filter that allows light to pass through it linearly along its length. By moving this lightweight component rapidly across a standard image sensor (camera) the HCC can capture images in real-time across the full visible spectrum of light, one wavelength at a time. www.wide-blue.com