Development of a procedure to measure the structure of a plant community using stereo images taken by two digital cameras

For the estimation of production or evapotranspiration of a plant community , the spatial structure of plants, especially the geometry of the leaves, h as to be known, The geometry of leaves is defined by the shape, the area an d the position of each leaf. It is known that the area of a leaflet of beau s can be estimated by the lengths of the long and short axes of a leaflet. Two images were taken at the same time by two cameras, which were set at di fferent positions, in a mungbean field. The spatial coordinates of four poi nts, which determine the long and short axes of a leaflet, were estimated b y the analysis of the stereo images.