Program: Collaborative Research for Common Regional Issues (CRC)

Field: Computer and Information Engineering

Principal Investigator: Dr. Hai Vu

Sending University: Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST)

Japanese Co-Investigator: Prof. Dr. Yasushi YAGI

Japanese University: Osaka University

Year: 2015

Abstract:

People in the regions also have the rich experiences to deliver natural products from medicinal plants. Unfortunately, accurate knowledge as well as other relevant information, e.g., practical/potential uses or identifications of the medicinal plants, are often incomplete. This project will contribute to (1) Promoting a powerful means/tool in order to construct and enrich a medicinal plant database in the ASEAN regions; Thanks to advantages of the computer vision/computer graphics techniques, the proposed tool utilizes visual descriptions of the medicinal plant organs so that corresponding knowledge is easy collected and friendly described. (2) Based on the collected database of medicinal plants in the regions, we provide mobile software tools (on iOS, or Android devices) for the medicinal plant identifications. Some different identification schemes are available such as searching by keywords, by visual descriptors of the organs, or by whole captured images (containing one of organs like leaf, flower or whole tree). We make a tight relationship with research groups in Thailand (KMITL) and Japan (Osaka University). This relationship give us more opportunities proposing ideas according to call of collaborative research program such as Newton Fund programme (supported by UK Governments in which Thailand and Vietnam are members countries); or ASEAN IVO program (supported by NICT, Japan) We have created an small research group in which students are working together in theme of the research project. The students faced to real issues and they solve such issues by stateoftheart techniques under supervisions of the research academic staffs. They also have opportunities to exchange research ideas to foreigner research staffs during period of the project, which are valuable time to clearly practices and resolve issues of the group working; The research project aims to develop a share medical plant database; This is an opportunity to make a community who are interested in medical plants; biodiversity experts, plant identifiers, or even endusers. We expect that the proposed tool should be feasible for forestry/biodiversity identifiers, or be commercialized product for endusers.