Timber is a staple trading commodity in many countries worldwide; it is utmost crucial that these invaluable natural resources are managed in a sustainable manner to prevent over-exploitations. However, with a worth estimated by INTERPOL to be in the range of USD 152 billion a year, illegal timber activities have brought about tremendous loss of revenue and uncontrolled deforestation upon affected timber producing regions. To combat such activities, law enforcement personnel are tasked to intercept illegal transportation of timber in the field and at transportation hubs. However, due to the lack of proper tools, these officers might find it difficult or lack of confidence to withhold suspicious consignments without justifiable evidence.
With the introduction of Xylorix Inspector, a smartphone app developed by Agritix that provides rapid wood species identification capability in the field. With little training, personnel are able to utilise it as an early warning tool to verify potential fraudulent timber declaration, and suspend the shipment for further investigation where more definitive methods such as DNA can be carried out. The Xylorix Inspector app works by taking a macroscopic end-grain picture of a wood with a mounted macro lens. The picture is then sent to a cloud server where a trained AI algorithm identifies the received picture and returns the identification result. All can be achieved in a matter of seconds.
Agritix has also developed the Xylorix PocketWood app, a free app that provides quick access to a large database of curated macroscopic images of close to 400 wood species worldwide, making it easier to discover and learn about new wood species and their distinctive macroscopic end-grain patterns.
Both apps are available for iPhones and Android phones:
Xylorix Inspector (Android): http://bit.ly/XyInsp_Android
Xylorix Inspector (iOS): https://apple.co/2TUCC9G
Xylorix PocketWood (Android): https://bit.ly/pktWood_adrd
Xylorix PocketWood (iOS): https://apple.co/3ktJjuN
The Xylorix macro lens kit can be found here: https://www.xylorix.com/products/widk24x01
The Agritix company is actively looking for collaborators who are interested in developing wood species AI models and solutions together. Anyone who is interested can get in touch with them through this email: agritix@agritix.com, or visit www.xylorix.com for more information.
