A plant pollination bag including a bag made of a flexible material, a pouch formed out of one or more additional pieces of material fixed to the wall of the bag, where a space is created between the at least one additional piece of material and the wall of the bag; at least one of a releasable closure and a tear line fixed to the one or more additional pieces of material and the wall of the bag, where the one or more of a releaseable closure and a tear line is adapted to seal the space between the one or more additional pieces of material and the wall of the bag; an elongated piece of material attached to the at least one of a releasable closure and a tear line, where the elongated piece of material is designed to extend from the interior of the bag to a location outside of the bag, where the elongated piece of material is further adapted to allow a user to at least one of A) open the releasable closure and B) tear the tear line from outside of the bag. The system of the preferred embodiments is preferably designed to one or more of assist in the pollination of a plant, capture seeds dropped by the plant, and prevent cross-pollination of the plant by unintended plants.

A device for detecting and marking differences between two substrates, such as images or written text. The device has an image capturing device that is in communication with image recognition software. Images of a secondary images are analyzed and compared to a primary image to detect differences between the two. Once a difference is detected, the device automatically disperses a marking material in the proximity of the detected difference.

Methods and apparatus for a vision-based pollination system. The vision-based pollination system includes a mobile support apparatus configured to traverse a crop field. The mobile support apparatus supports a pollination liquid storage tank fluidly coupled to a plurality of pollen applicators. The apparatus includes pollination nodes including a vision system and a camera. Each pollination node is coupled to and controls a portion of the pollen applicators. In operation, the mobile support apparatus traverses the crop field, each pollination node repeatedly taking photographs of a portion of the crop field, identifying locations for delivering the pollination liquid, and determining when to operate the pollen applicators to deliver the pollination liquid to the identified locations as the vision-based pollination system traverses the crop field.

This invention describes a new method to generate rice seed. The process involves the delivery of pollen of the male parent at will, as available either in a preserved pollen bank, or using real-time collection from male plants as they become available. Desired pollen is delivered to fertile females during the period when viable pollen from the females and locally proximal unrelated plants is not being released. The delivered male pollen is in such amounts and fortuitously timed that it preferentially pollinates the females. Such fortuitous timing may involve the intentional application of pollen to females a day or two prior to female parent pollen becoming viable, and/or during several periods wherein female parent pollen and/or other proximal plant pollen is not being shed.

A plant pollination bag including a bag made of a flexible material, a pouch formed out of one or more additional pieces of material fixed to the wall of the bag, where a space is created between the at least one additional piece of material and the wall of the bag; at least one of a releasable closure and a tear line fixed to the one or more additional pieces of material and the wall of the bag, where the one or more of a releaseable closure and a tear line is adapted to seal the space between the one or more additional pieces of material and the wall of the bag; an elongated piece of material attached to the at least one of a releasable closure and a tear line, where the elongated piece of material is designed to extend from the interior of the bag to a location outside of the bag, where the elongated piece of material is further adapted to allow a user to at least one of A) open the releasable closure and B) tear the tear line from outside of the bag. The system of the preferred embodiments is preferably designed to one or more of assist in the pollination of a plant, capture seeds dropped by the plant, and prevent cross-pollination of the plant by unintended plants.

A device for detecting and marking differences between two substrates, such as images or written text. The device has an image capturing device that is in communication with image recognition software. Images of a secondary images are analyzed and compared to a primary image to detect differences between the two. Once a difference is detected, the device automatically disperses a marking material in the proximity of the detected difference.

In some embodiments, methods and systems of pollinating crops in a crop-containing area include at least one unmanned vehicle having a receptacle including pollen, a pollen dispenser configured to dispense the pollen from the receptacle onto the crops, and a sensor configured to detect presence of the pollen dispensed from the at least one pollen dispenser on the crops and interpret the presence of the pollen dispensed from the at least one pollen dispenser on the crops as a verification that the pollen dispensed from the at least one pollen dispenser was successfully applied to the crops.

In some embodiments, methods and systems of pollinating crops include one or more unmanned vehicles including a pollen applicator configured to collect pollen from a flower of a first crop and to apply the pollen collected from the flower of the first crop onto a flower of a second crop and a sensor configured to detect presence of the pollen applied to the flower of the second crop by the pollen applicator to verify that the pollen collected from the flower of the first crop by the pollen applicator was successfully applied by the pollen applicator onto the flower of the second crop.

An indoor soilless plant cultivating system, comprising a plurality of stationary light posts, each of which adapted to illuminate a predetermined sector of an indoor facility in accordance with a predetermined illumination signature; a plurality of plant growth towers that are rotatable about a substantially vertical axis in accordance with a predetermined timing sequence so as to be exposable to the light generated at any given time by one or more of the light posts and that are arranged by at least one module defining a module darkened interior region within which plants being instantaneously positioned receive a sensation of nighttime; and irrigation means for supplying the plants being cultivated in each of said towers with a nutrient-rich solution. Moreover, an artificial pollination system based on compressed air nozzles is incorporated within the light posts.

The invention relates to a Coanda effect flow booster (10) for inducing a boosted flow of gas, comprising: a main air circulation pipeline (14), at least one injection opening that opens into the main pipeline (14), a plurality of openings for supplying compressed motive gas, each opening configured to be connected to a source of compressed motive gas in order to supply the at least one injection opening with compressed motive gas, at least one distribution pipeline connecting the plurality of supply openings to the at least one injection opening, a booster profile (48) at least partially defining the at least one injection opening and forming a convex surface configured to create a Coanda effect in a flow of compressed motive gas injected through the at least one injection opening.