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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Wondering what tree species your wooden furniture is made of? DOST, DENR to jointly develop mobile app for automated wood identification

Wondering what tree species your wooden furniture is made of? DOST, DENR to jointly develop mobile app for automated wood identification

Published Mar 15, 2021 11:57 am

By June this year, the public will able to check and determine what tree species their wooden furniture is made of through a Wood Identification Mobile Phone Application being developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

(Pixabay)

The DOST- Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) and DENR-Forest Management Bureau (DENR-FMB) are currently developing a mobile application that would allow the public to quickly and accurately identify selected wood species.

"Soon, your curiosity will be satisfied and you will be able to easily identify a piece of wood by just using your smartphone. This will be made possible through a mobile app being developed by the DOST- Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) and DENR-Forest Management Bureau (DENR-FMB),” read the statement issued by the DOST- Science and Technology Information Institute (STII) on Monday, March 15.

DOST-FPRDI’s Forester Mario Ramos said a machine-vision-based wood identification system called XyloTron will be used by the project, which is expected to be completed by June this year.

Developed by the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory, XyloTron uses image analysis, statistical processing software and the wood imaging device Xyloscope in capturing and analyzing the wood’s cross section, he noted.

“The project goal is to make sure all locally traded timber and timber products are correctly identified. Through the mobile app, a person can verify whether a piece of lumber is legally sourced or not,” Ramos said.

He said the Wood Identification Mobile Phone Application using Android OS is expected to benefit the government and the wood industry, as it can be used as effective tool to monitor illegally sourced lumber and as a forest conservation measure in the long run.

“The app will identify initially 30 commercially traded wood species in the Philippines, which include endemic, exotic and imported trees. As it can be used offline, the app is reliable even if the user is off-the-grid,” Ramos said.

The mobile app project is funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations under its European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (EU-FLEGT) Programme.

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