After reading through the paper we were excited to try it out! However, it occurred to us that not everyone has an available stand of mature deciduous trees to try this out on. Lots of people do have trees in their back garden, however. To that end, we decided to situate our Raspberry Pi camera in less than ideal surroundings and see if we could generate interesting data. 

We want to see if we can generate some data to see the gradual growth and decline of the tree canopy over the course of the growing season and into winter. 

Furthermore, we believe that anyone with an interest in the Raspberry Pi is capable of giving this a go and monitoring the growth of their own trees. It’s a fun project, and it provides a good introduction to using the Raspberry Pi in a remote setting. 

The total cost of all the parts is detailed below:

• Raspberry Pi Zero: £30 (global chip shortage didn’t help in getting one at a good price!)
• Fisheye Camera: £25.50
• Fisheye Camera cable for Pi Zero: £3.29
• Witty Pi 3: £23
• 32 GB Micro SD Card: £8.99
• 20,000 mAh battery: £40
• Diymore battery shield: £7.99
• 2x 18650 Cells: £17.50
• ABS plastic box: £18.17
• Acrylic dome: £7.55
• Total:  £181.99

The above products are what, I would recommend if you are anything like me, you will have a bunch of this stuff lying around, so it should cost you less! The Amazon links are affiliate links, so we will receive a small kickback if you buy from them. Make sure that you shop around to find the best deals.

Presented is a multi-part guide to take you through the build process and the eventual image analysis.