A paper has been published in the Irrigation Science Journal that describes the development of a semi-automated and automated methodology for IR thermal image acquisition and analysis using programming techniques in MATLAB. The paper also includes a discussion of potential use of infrared thermal images for early detection of diseases.
Fuentes, S., De Bei, R. Pech, J., Tyerman, S. 2012. Computational water stress indices obtained from thermal image analysis of grapevine canopies. Irrigation Science. DOI: 10.1007/s00271-012-0375-8.
Link to the paper: IR Thermo Fuentes
Related paper: Fuentes S., Kelley G., Collins J., Rogers G., Conroy J. 2005. Use of Infrared Thermography to Assess Spatial and Temporal Variability of Stomatal Conductance of Grapevines Under Partial Root-zone Drying. An Irrigation Scheduling Application. Acta Horticulturae (ISHS) 689:309-316.
Hi Teodoromd
I am not quite sure what do you mean about the source. We are currently working in a variety of applications using this technique. There is plenty of data that backs up conclusions from the paper. One consideration though will be that since this system is more sensitive to stomatal conductance, anisohydric varieties will require some more study to achieve good correlations between the infrared index and grapevine water status.
S
Thanks , I have recently been searching for information about this topic for ages and yours is the best I’ve discovered till now. But, what about the bottom line? Are you positive in regards to the source?
This program has received a lot of attention from other researchers and currently we are working in the use of the code to analyse data from Institutions in Australia, Spain, Chile and USA. The next step will be to develop a stand alone (.exe) application to distribute for free among researchers, so they can make their own analysis without the need of a full MATLAB licence.
Keep reading these posts for further developments.