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Can We See Photosynthesis? Magnifying the Tiny Color Changes of Plant Green Leaves Using Eulerian Video Magnification

Research Authors
Islam A.T.F. Taj-Eddin, Mahmoud Afifi, Mostafa Korashy, Ali H. Ahmed, Ng Yoke Cheng, Evelyng Hernandez, Salma M. Abdel-latif
Research Department
Research Journal
Journal of Electronic Imaging
Research Rank
1
Research Publisher
the international society for optics and photonics (SPIE), doi: 10.1117/1.JEI.26.6.060501
Research Vol
Vol 26-No 6
Research Website
https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/Journal-of-Electronic-Imaging/volume-26/issue-6/060501/Can-we-see-photosynthesis-Magnifying-the-tiny-color-changes-of/10.1117/1.JEI.26.6.060501.short
Research Year
2017
Research_Pages
(060501-1)-(060501-4)
Research Abstract

Plant aliveness is proven through laboratory
experiments and special scientific instruments. We aim
to detect the degree of animation of plants based on the
magnification of the small color changes in the plant’s
green leaves using the Eulerian video magnification.
Capturing the video under a controlled environment, e.g.,
using a tripod and direct current light sources, reduces
camera movements and minimizes light fluctuations; we
aim to reduce the external factors as much as possible.
The acquired video is then stabilized and a proposed algorithm
is used to reduce the illumination variations. Finally,
the Euler magnification is utilized to magnify the color
changes on the light invariant video. The proposed system
does not require any special purpose instruments as it
uses a digital camera with a regular frame rate. The results
of magnified color changes on both natural and plastic
leaves show that the live green leaves have color changes
in contrast to the plastic leaves. Hence, we can argue that
the color changes of the leaves are due to biological operations,
such as photosynthesis. To date, this is possibly
the first work that focuses on interpreting visually, some
biological operations of plants without any special purpose
instruments.