On-Field In situ Inspection for Marssonina Coronaria Infected Apple Blotch Based on Non-Invasive Bio-Photonic Imaging Module

On-field in situ inspection of Marssonina coronaria infected apple blotch for apple leaf specimens was demonstrated using compact backpack-type optical coherence tomography (OCT). Simultaneously, the acquired OCT results were precisely matched with a widely used agricultural plant pathogen inspection technique called loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to confirm on-field applicability of the compact backpack-type OCT. Specimens were examined for 8 weeks. Automated Amplitude-scan (A-scan) depth profiling and post-processed infected tissue boundary detection from acquired OCT images were performed to investigate the increase in the internal layer gaps of the leaf specimens resulting from the disease. Clearly identifiable morphological difference between healthy and infected-suspected specimens was observed through the OCT images, which were well correlated with LAMP results. OCT-LAMP correlations and confirmed feasibility study results conclude that the compact backpack-type OCT diagnosing modality can be effective and extensively applicable for various novel agricultural discoveries.