AI-Powered Eyewear for Harvesting

Dr. Jake Holley

A partnership between Inagro; the Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, and Food Research (ILVO); Robovision; and Iristick has developed smart glasses that use AI to help novice workers identify when tomatoes are ready to be picked.

The glasses feature a camera connected to a smartphone and the system has been trained on hundreds of images to detect ripe fruit. While this tool may be most useful for new workers learning to distinguish which tomatoes are ready for harvest, it’s also one of the first real-world examples of AI-assisted vision being worn by greenhouse employees.

In other industries, smart eyewear has already proven useful for tasks like helping mechanics identify parts in cars or aircraft. As this technology continues to evolve, it’s easy to imagine future applications in agriculture, such as monitoring crop health, predicting harvest timing or scouting for pests, all from a pair of glasses.