ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,307,532, issued on May 20, was assigned to Deere & Co. (Moline, Ill.).
"Upward facing light sensor for plant detection" was invented by Matthew Stephen Colgan (San Francisco) and Charles McCauley Ross (Los Altos, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A farming machine is configured to identify and treat plants in a field. The farming machine includes one or more light sensors for measuring a characteristic of light. The one or more light sensors are coupled to the farming machine and are directed a substantially upwards orientation away from the plants. A control system adjusts settings of an image acquisition system based on a character...