Identify mushrooms from the photograph. Mushrooms with a smartphone: a review of mobile applications

The mushroom picking season is in full swing, but not everyone is well versed in them and may confuse the edible with the poisonous. And here special applications for smartphones come to the rescue, which from the photo can determine the name of the mushroom. We decided to check how such a program works in real life.

How is a mushroom variety determined

To get 90% accuracy in one of the most popular such programs, several conditions must be met. For example, mushrooms are best taken in their natural environment. The full list of requirements is in the picture below, some definitions from there are very funny (apparently, Google automatically translates them).

We try to find a suitable picture of the grease fitting on the Web and upload it to the application on the smartphone. After a quick scan, the result is displayed - the oiler is shown in a photograph with a probability of 71.1%.

It is important that the application only works when connected to the Internet, which means that in a dense forest it can be useless.

There are practically no problems with determining the variety of the fungus from photographs taken in good lighting without "extra" objects in the background.

Test on Komarovka

To test the application’s performance in real conditions, we went to the Komarovsky market. A lot of mushrooms are sold there - there are mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms and some other varieties to choose from.

First, check if the program can correctly determine honey mushroom. When scanning photos in which they are captured in a bank, we get a result of 19.9%. Taking into account the fact that we specifically went against the conditions that the picture should meet, the application did a good job and correctly determined the type of mushroom.

We move on and try to scan saffron milk cap. Then the program crashed and flatly refused to determine their variety. Of the possible options - a Dubovik or Tinder fungus, saffron mushrooms are not on the list. Scanning one single mushroom in compliance with the recommended shooting conditions did not change anything.

Boletus the application determined correctly, in the picture - “cep” with a probability of 77.8%. Indeed, the porcini mushroom belongs to the genus boletus, so the answer can be considered correct.

In most cases, the application correctly determines the variety of the fungus and shows whether it is edible or not. True, for the most accurate result, the picture must correspond to many parameters, which are not always easy to fully comply with.

But if there is no other way to check the mushroom, then the application can be used. The disadvantages include only the lack of the ability to determine the variety of the fungus without an Internet connection.

In the world there are about 7 thousand species of cap mushrooms. On the territory of the former USSR there are about 3 thousand of them. About 200 of them are edible, but the population uses only 20-25   species. All this happens due to the fact that it is difficult to identify edible, conditionally edible and poisonous mushrooms by eye, especially for a beginner.

Danger!

Not all people who decide to pick mushrooms are well oriented in their varieties. This leads to the accidental use of poisonous mushrooms. The poisoning that occurs after this is one of the most severe food intoxications that can lead to death. Although from some mushrooms you can just get sickly.

Decision

For the recognition of edible mushrooms, people use various directories, where they try to identify edible mushroom from photographs or not.

Fortunately, technology does not stand still. With the help of machine learning, you can teach a computer to recognize the types of mushrooms from photographs taken with a regular smartphone.

To achieve good accuracy in determining the type of fungus, we needed a huge archive of labeled photos of mushrooms, a properly constructed neural network and great computing power for its training.

MOSCOW, Aug 17 - RIA Novosti, Dmitry Filonov.Experienced mushroom pickers know "in person" hundreds of species of mushrooms. But what to do to the children of the "stone jungle" who saw live except perhaps the mushrooms in the nearest supermarket? Of course, pick up a smartphone or tablet and go to the nearest forest - without forgetting to first download the RIA Novosti-selected set of applications for the neophyte mushroom picker to your device.

Recognize the enemy in person

Owners of smartphones on the Android platform are more fortunate with mushrooms than iPhone owners - the number of identifiers for the Google system is noticeably greater. Maybe the developers do not believe that the owners of Apple gadgets are generally capable of such follies?

At the request of mushrooms, one of the first in the Google Play app store to issue the Mushroom Encyclopedia application. According to his description, it contains information about 345 species of mushrooms, which are divided into three categories - edible, conditionally edible and poisonous. You can find the desired mushroom in this directory either by its name or by selecting a similar picture in the application.

Judging by the stated numbers, this program is the most extensive reference book we have encountered. True, for installation, it requires downloading additional modules, it works slowly, and in the extensive catalog among the collisions of spindle legs you can get lost out of habit. Therefore, applications with a selection of fewer, but really common mushrooms, are no less relevant.

For example, the application "Mushrooms. Directory" contains information on 46 edible mushrooms and 30 poisonous. The program implements a search by the name of the mushroom, and there are also the headings “Places of collection” and “Memorial of the mushroom picker”, from which the inquiring mind of the beginning mushroom picker will find out exactly where to hunt, and how not to disappear in the forest.

Alexander Kazakov

Owners of Android smartphones can go to the forest without fear: many “mushroom” applications have been developed for their gadgets

Interestingly, this same developer offers the Intuition Trainer application. It will probably help in cases where information about the mushroom found is not in the directory.

Another interesting, but paid application (31.57 rubles) - "Mushrooms, Berries, Herbs". With it, you can pick up a full bucket, basket, bag or, as they say in St. Petersburg, a bag, not only mushrooms, but also other gifts of nature. By the way, the program also contains a calendar for collecting all this useful flora.

Owners of the iPhone and iPad are forced to be content with less. Not only are there fewer guides for mushrooms in the Apple app store, but they are all paid. However, the forests are fraught with many secrets and mysteries, so it is possible that the keen eye will be able to detect an Android smartphone forgotten on the hemp.

The cheapest app on the App Store for mushroom pickers costs $ 0.99 and is called "iMogo Mushrooms." In addition to the classic directory of edible mushrooms, it also contains recipes for various dishes, as well as a section of the first-aid kit, from which you can learn, for example, what to do in case of mushroom poisoning.

For those who are willing to pay a substantial sum of $ 11.99 for the application, you can recommend the Mushrooms Pro guide from Nature Mobile. This application contains information about 300 species of mushrooms and 2 thousand pictures. At the same time, there is a step-by-step identification of the fungus, which allows you to determine its name, answering a number of questions.

Valery Gordienko

The ideal mushroom reference application for both Android smartphones and iPhone has not yet been developed - you have to turn to your own experience and intuition

In addition, this application implements the ability to leave notes for each type of mushroom and to attach geographical coordinates, which will help in the future to find the mushroom place once met. For inexperienced mushroom pickers, we note that if the mushroom is cut off and not torn out of the ground, then another will grow in its place. So, at least, says folk wisdom.

The Apple app store contains several mushroom guides, which cost a moderate $ 2-3. True, not all of them are equally useful. For example, the Fungi application, although it contains information about 600 species of mushrooms, does not support the Russian language, which can make oral consultations with a professional mushroom picker in the forest somewhat difficult.

Unfortunately, we could not find the ideal mushroom reference application for both Android smartphones and iPhone. Among the functions of such programs, I would like to see the possibility of identifying the fungus by its photo, as well as an augmented reality system that would, for example, highlight potentially mushroom spots on the screen of a forest picture from the device’s built-in camera.

And, of course, each such application is simply obliged to have functions similar to Instagram's photo application, so that you can take a picture of the largest mushroom by applying a stylish filter to the photo and post the photo on Facebook and Twitter.

On mosquitoes with a smartphone

Having solved the main problem - picking mushrooms, lovers of walks in nature may still have a number of side effects. For example, how to go back if there are only trees and birches around, and the desired direction is unknown.

For those who do not yet know perfectly the old-fashioned ways, such as determining the cardinal points from anthills or moss on trees, you can install one of the free mapping applications.

Given the very real likelihood of a lack of cellular communications in the forest, it is better if the program has offline maps downloaded in advance.

Yandex.Maps for iPhone and Android this year acquired a similar function, though the list of downloaded territories is limited mainly to cities, with the exception of Moscow, Leningrad Oblast and Crimea. However, experienced mushroom pickers manage to find prey anywhere, even within the city limits.

Perhaps it is not superfluous to install an application for recording tracks. For example, Google offers the My Tracks program for Android smartphones. It is able to record information about the movement of a person based on the data of a GPS receiver built into the device. Lost, you can return to the starting point, repeating your path in the opposite direction. And then you can brag to your friends about the track, and mark the most mushroom places on the map.

Similar applications exist for the iPhone. For example, the free RunKeeper or paid GPS Kit. Such applications can also be used on morning runs, because a real mushroom picker must be healthy as an elk in order to walk tens of kilometers in search of prey.

Rosleskhoz

In order not to get lost in the forest, it is recommended to install a couple of relevant applications on the gadget

Some of these applications already have a built-in compass function. Otherwise, you can put a separate program. It is important to remember that the red arrow does not indicate the nearest store, but to the north.

Advertising claims that the smartphone is able to help with mosquitoes, the main misfortune in many forests. In application stores, there are many programs that generate high-frequency sound, which, in theory, should repel mosquitoes. However, mosquitoes themselves often do not know about this, judging by the emotional reviews of some users. A much more effective flashlight application is very useful if the search for mushrooms lasts until late.

Similar applications, however, can be found for the Android platform. For example, One Touch SOS also sends messages to a given contact list when you press the red button, informing them of the user's location, and the Where's s My Droid application will help you find someone who has lost their way without help.

It is possible that the search for the unlucky mushroom picker may drag on for several hours. In this case, the application with a map of the starry sky will help him pass the time studying celestial bodies, and a program that simulates the burning of a candle will make the waiting process more comfortable.

And the last tip - do not forget to charge your smartphone before leaving the house. If the cellular signal is weak or absent, the battery energy can be consumed very quickly. To extend the battery life, you can temporarily disable all wireless interfaces by selecting airplane mode in the device settings.

Not all talkers are equally useful

In compiling the review, we were faced with an ambiguous interpretation of the edibility of some mushrooms by different programs. So, for example, part of the applications classify many representatives of the group of talkers as conditionally edible, while other programs prefer to consider them poisonous. Therefore, do not forget that application developers are not responsible for your health, and even usually harmless mushrooms can be dangerous in some cases.