DSAIL-TreeVision: A software tool for extracting tree biophysical parameters from stereoscopic images

Abstract

Reliable forest data is crucial for policy and investment decisions, hence the need to monitor forests. Tree harvesting policies, informed by tree attribute data, can help prevent excessive logging. The use of stereoscopic vision for estimating tree attributes is an active field of research. DSAIL-TreeVision is open-source software for extracting tree diameter at breast height, crown diameter, and height from stereoscopic images. It is written in Python and comprises three modules for capturing and storing images, calibrating single and stereo cameras, and extracting the tree attributes. While other open-source software implementing stereoscopic vision for other applications exists, no software for estimating these tree attributes exists. DSAIL-TreeVision was developed to fill this gap and has been tested in a real forest setting and on the DIML/CVL RGB-D dataset.