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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Plant Introduction Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #70206
Title: IMAGE-INTEGRATED COMPUTER CATALOGING OF MAIZE GERMPLASM

Author
item SHYY, Y - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item MISRA, M - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item MILLARD, MARK - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Bretting, Peter

Submitted to: Association of Official Seed Analysts
Publication Type: Research Notes
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/17/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A new method of capturing images of maize was developed by a joint North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (NCRPIS) - ISU Seed Science Center research team. A color flat-bed scanner was modified to acquire the images. The scanner replaced a video camera, image digitizer, lighting chamber and other hardware previously used. The scanned images are of excellent quality and are much easier to integrate with database programs under a Microsoft (MS) Windows environment (3.11 or Win95). Training was provided to NCRPIS staff so that this technology could be adapted for daily germplasm management operations. A RCD-1000 Pinnacle multi-session CD-R writer was used to store the database program and images on CDs. The images can be written to the CD one session at a time, making image management more efficient. So far, 3,000 images have been collected and saved on one CD. Each maize accession is represented by seven images, including five images of ears, one of the cob and one of kernels. Both MS Visual Foxpro 3.0 and Visual Basic 3.0 (Professional version) were used to develop the database/image displaying program. The Foxpro program was converted to Visual Basic because of the smaller codes and royalty-free nature of executable files from the Visual Basic compiler. The final image management programs will be coded with all images and saved on the same CD prior to public release. Other germplasm management sites may adopt this for image collection and analysis.