WinSCANOPY: Canopy Structure and Solar Radiation Analysis

Image Acquisition Component

Digital camera and a fish-eye lens
Camera Remote Controller
Tripods

When ordered as a complete system, WinSCANOPY is much easier to use. A system comprises the following components:

Digital camera and a fish-eye lens

The cameras and lenses we sell range from low cost point-and-shoot cameras with a fixed lens to high-end digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras with an interchangeable fish-eye lens.

When purchased from Regent Instruments, cameras and lenses come with a calibration file that indicates to the WinSCANOPY program:
1) the position and radius of the 180 degree field of view hemispherical area to analyse in the image (hemisphere).
2) the calibration coefficients to compensate for non-linearities in the projection of elevation angle (azimuth) in function of distance to the hemisphere centre.
3) miscellaneous information about the camera (image size, aspect ratio…) and lens (model, FOV…).

You can also provide the calibration parameters of your own camera and lens. Note that this require some technical knowledge about these components and that Regent Instruments does not provide any help for this.

Camera Remote Controller

The Camera Remote Controller allows to trigger its camera at distances up to a few meters depending on the model.



Tripods

WinSCANOPY systems come wth a mini tripod for low canopies. Camera levelling is done manually by the operator. User can buy locally a larger tripod for tall canopies (make sure the head can be tilted so that the lens points toward zenith (sky)).

North direction recording for radiation analyses

To do radiations analyses, the North direction relative to the hemisphere centre in the images must be known in order to determine the sun position over time (to calculate solar paths and radiations intensity).

The indication of the North direction can be done in different ways.

The simplest is to orient the camera top during image acquisition so that it points toward North (North will be at the top of the images). At analysis time no orientation value needs to be entered, the default zero value is used.

Optionally someone can: 1) measure the camera top direction relative to North at image acquisition (using a compass held in hand), 2) write down or store the orientation value and 3) enter it at analysis time in WinSCANOPY.

	Image Analysis for Plant Science

Regent Instruments Inc.	since 1991