Promoting the Digitization and Public Archiving of Plant Specimens

Institute of Natural and Environmental Sciences

Professor Atsuko Takano

Natural history specimens of plants and insects serve as tangible evidence that these organisms existed at a specific time and place. Therefore, rapidly digitizing specimens and enhancing their accessibility is crucial for promoting biodiversity research. To this end, we have developed a device that allows individuals without specialized skills to photograph specimens at a certain level of quality, and a method to automatically extract label data such as collection date, collector, and collection location using various AI technologies.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50179-0