Scanning📱

In order to produce quality botanical scans we mainly utilize NeRF/Photogrammetry 3D scanning techniques. To keep things simple we’ll recommend 2 FREE software’s you can access on a phone or basic laptop/PC! However, feel free to use whatever software and capture methods you would like, these are just our beginner recommendations!

Method 1 - NeRFs (Nuclear Resonance Fields)

<aside> ℹ️ We recommend our beginners start using the NeRF capture method as it can produce great results and is slightly easier than photogrammetry. It also allows for some cool post-scan editing that will allow you to easily make a video of your scans!

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<aside> 🌀 LUMA AI - Our recommended NeRF software for this competition!

It is a tool that will allow you to produce your NeRF botanical specimen scans!

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**iOS mobile app users watch below** ⬇️

3 mins 

                                 **3 mins**

As an iOS user you’re able to use the LUMA AI mobile application to guide your capture process and render your 3D model specimen.

Non-iPhone (use *web-tool) watch below* ⬇️

4 mins 

                                 **4 mins**

If you’re not using an iPhone for video capture:

  1. Record a video of your specimen with your regular smartphone video application. The above video is helpful guidance to follow before filming your video and uploading to the ***web-based tool,*** you will just be missing the AR overlays.
  2. When filming follow our top tips below.
  3. Upload your video to the LUMA AI ***web-tool*** for rendering your 3D model

PlantGang’s top tips 👀 🌿

Method 2 - Photogrammetry

If you would prefer to use photogrammetry, for beginners we recommend the free **Polycam** app for iOS/Android smartphones and PC!

Photogrammetry is a great tool, and is how we’ve produced scans on previous expeditions. However it has some challenges when dealing with reflective, organic structures like botanical specimens, and may therefore be a more difficult 3D-tool for beginners!

Learn more ⇒ Photogrammetry

Data Collection🔬

Use a notepad (digital or physical) to collect some basic scientific data on your chosen plant specimen! This will give it scientific context for use in research and education! 🔍

Essentials

This is the key data to collect for your specimen to be considered in the competition:

| Species name

(This can be identified with help from plant recognition apps! We recommend using PictureThis) | The scientific species name is made up of a genus and a specific name (always italicised with the first letter of the genus in capitals). For example, Homo sapiens. | | --- | --- | | Collection date | day/month/year | | Collector | Twitter handle/name | | Country | Country where specimen is. | | Locality | site name (usually the nearest place on the map/description of the location) |

Additional information

If you want to delve deeper into data collection, here is some optional information to look for:

Geolocation GPS coordinates of the specimen
Habitat The place where a plant lives and the conditions of this environment
Habit (plant description) The general external appearance of a plant, including size, shape, texture, smell and orientation
Associated species Scientific names of species growing alongside your target specimen

Uploading✏️

Check out the video below for producing your unique 3D-model video if using the LUMA AI web-app (please reach out to PlantBoi in the Discord if submitting the model via an alternate route).

Then submit the video file to our Paperform as detailed on

PlantGang’s ‘Citizen Scientist’ Scanning Competition