System for selecting plants from among a population of plants
First Claim
1. A system for identifying one or more plants in a population of two or more plants in an environment, comprising:
- (a) two or more monitoring units, each plant being simultaneously monitored, before and after an environmental change, as a whole plant, by a monitoring unit, each monitoring unit comprising;
(i) a pot for holding a plant from the population;
(ii) a container configured to contain water and to receive said potted plant, said container being covered with a cover to reduce or prevent evaporation of water out of said container, wherein a stem of the plant passes through said cover; and
(iii) one or more sensors configured to sense a weight of the whole plant and to transmit one or more time dependent signals indicative of values of said weight;
(b) a display device; and
(c) a processor configured to;
(i) receive the time dependent weight signals from the monitoring units, and to process the signals to calculate, based on said signals, a cumulative weight gain and one or both of a momentary transpiration rate or a rate of change of the momentary transpiration rate of each plant, for each time interval of one or more time intervals, and also to calculate a cumulative transpiration over a time period, based on said momentary transpiration rate or said rate of change of said momentary transpiration;
(ii) rank the plants in the population based on both said cumulative weight gain and said cumulative transpiration for at least one time interval before said environmental change and for at least one time interval after said environmental change;
(iii) identifying plants in the population according to said ranking; and
(iv) displaying on said display device identifiers of the identified plants.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Provided is a system (1) and method for identifying one or more plants in a population of two or more plants (4). The method includes monitoring one or more parameters of a plant (4) of the population and generating one or more time signals indicative of values of the one or more parameters. The signals are processed to calculate one or both of a transpiration rate of each plant and a rate of change of a transpiration rate over each of one or more time intervals. The plants are then ranked using an algorithm involving the calculated transpiration rates, and plants having a ranking above a predetermined ranking are identified. Further provided is a system for carrying out the method of the invention.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A system for identifying one or more plants in a population of two or more plants in an environment, comprising:
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(a) two or more monitoring units, each plant being simultaneously monitored, before and after an environmental change, as a whole plant, by a monitoring unit, each monitoring unit comprising; (i) a pot for holding a plant from the population; (ii) a container configured to contain water and to receive said potted plant, said container being covered with a cover to reduce or prevent evaporation of water out of said container, wherein a stem of the plant passes through said cover; and (iii) one or more sensors configured to sense a weight of the whole plant and to transmit one or more time dependent signals indicative of values of said weight; (b) a display device; and (c) a processor configured to; (i) receive the time dependent weight signals from the monitoring units, and to process the signals to calculate, based on said signals, a cumulative weight gain and one or both of a momentary transpiration rate or a rate of change of the momentary transpiration rate of each plant, for each time interval of one or more time intervals, and also to calculate a cumulative transpiration over a time period, based on said momentary transpiration rate or said rate of change of said momentary transpiration; (ii) rank the plants in the population based on both said cumulative weight gain and said cumulative transpiration for at least one time interval before said environmental change and for at least one time interval after said environmental change; (iii) identifying plants in the population according to said ranking; and (iv) displaying on said display device identifiers of the identified plants. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for selecting one or more plants from a population of two or more plants, each plant associated with an identifier, the method comprising:
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filling a container of a monitoring unit with water to a predefined level; simultaneously monitoring, before and after an environmental change, a weight of each whole plant of the population with said monitoring unit, wherein said monitoring unit comprises; (i) a pot for holding a plant from the population; (ii) said container configured to contain water and to receive said potted plant, said container being covered with a cover to reduce or prevent evaporation of water out of said container, wherein a stem of the plant passes through said cover; and (iii) one or more sensors configured to sense said weight and to transmit one or more time dependent signals indicative of values of said weight; processing the signals from said monitoring unit by a processor to calculate, based on said signals, a cumulative weight gain and one or both of a momentary transpiration rate of the plant or a rate of change of the momentary transpiration rate of the whole plant, for each time interval of one or more time intervals, and also to calculate a cumulative transpiration over a time period, based on said momentary transpiration rate or said rate of change of said momentary transpiration; ranking the plants in the population based on both said cumulative weight gain and said cumulative transpiration for at least one time interval before said environmental change and for at least one time interval after said environmental change; selecting plants in the population based on said ranking; and displaying on a display device identifiers of the selected plants. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification