Artificial Intelligence works out problem of seed germination tests

Researchers have taught a clever new tool how to carry out one of crop breeding's more challenging tasks. Growers need seeds that germinate effectively and uniformly within a given period to maximise crop productivity. Seed suppliers must therefore test seed samples to ensure a certain germination rate is met, a process that is difficult and time consuming. SeedGerm – based on machine learning-driven image analysis – performs this tricky process in a low-cost, high-throughput and semi-automated way. The product is the result of a collaboration between the Earlham Institute (EI), the John Innes Centre, Syngenta and NIAB. Details of the research step-forward is published, open-access in New Phytologist, along with the open-source software and data.