The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 12, 1997
Robert Conrad, Wheaton, IL (US);
Ball Seed Company, West Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for assessing the quality of a seed lot utilizes image analysis equipment to generate an indication of seed quality. In one method, the quality of the seed lot may be determined by generating an image of a plurality of seedlings grown from a plurality of seeds selected from the seed lot, determining the leaf surface area of each of the seedlings from the image, determining the total leaf surface area of the seedlings from the image, determining a surface area threshold relating to the leaf surface areas of a plurality of the seedlings, determining the proportion of the seedlings which have a leaf surface area that exceeds the surface area threshold, and generating an indication of seed quality based upon that proportion.