Sony Electronics Inc. is to release the Version 2.0 software update for its Smart Agriculture Solution aimed at providing agricultural users with new AI-based imaging capabilities. These new features, based on industry feedback, provide expanded functionality and are planned for rollout in March 2020. Additionally, the company expects to begin distributing the software in Australia, starting next month.
With the launch of Sony’s Version 2.0 software update, the enhanced agriculture product consisting of a drone-mounted multispectral sensing unit and Fast Field Analyser image analytics software for in-the-field crop management, monitoring and insights, will add Sony’s imaging and AI-based technology for stand counting. Stand counting allows growers to assess the planting quality, enabling replanting decisions to be made earlier and with greater accuracy. The Version 2.0 update will allow growers to precisely analyse large areas with ease, the company said.
The latest Smart Agriculture Solution software is said to enable a more intelligent, more flexible and more robust way to count and evaluate early-stage row crops, with capabilities for variable and uniform seeding rates. These enhancements were designed to create a more powerful and capable system that better serves agronomists and offers end-to-end support for replanting decisions, which can be made minutes after flight, without the need for an Internet connection.
Additional features of the Version 2.0 software’s stand count include a more accurate representation of the field achieved by wide-area comprehensive sampling, which enables sectional replanting to save time and maximise yield. Furthermore, it offers insights for assessing the quantity and quality of a planting, such as ‘Skip’ or ‘Double’ rate, which provide valuable data that can drive decision-making into the next season.
Version 2.0 of Sony’s Smart Agriculture Solution also has the ability to evaluate data from multiple angles. With a new side-by-side comparison capability, users can now compare variable planting maps versus actual emergence, track historical progress of the NDVI before and after the treatment, and compare NDVI and historical yield maps for yield estimation. With the comparison feature, the quality of the analytics tied to field scouting increases and becomes more efficient, empowering agronomists to provide reasoned advice to the growers they support.
