Patent Document ID: 6160902
Application ID: 08948637
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An imaging system usable with a ground based vehicle for analyzing an image in real time of vegetation from an area having vegetation and a non-vegetation background, the imaging system comprising: a light receiving unit mounted on the ground-based vehicle for receiving light reflected from the vegetation and non-vegetation background at a plurality of wavelength ranges; an ambient light sensor mounted on the ground-based vehicle to quantify changes in ambient light intensity; a multi-spectral sensor mounted on the ground-based vehicle and coupled to the light receiving unit and the ambient light sensor to produce an image of the vegetation and non-vegetation based on the light reflected at the plurality of wavelength ranges; an image processor mounted on the ground-based vehicle and coupled to the multi-spectral sensor to produce a vegetation image by separating the non-vegetation portion of the image from the vegetation portion as a function of light reflected at a first wavelength and corrected for changes in ambient light intensity; a material application device configured to apply a fertilizer and coupled for movement with the vehicle; a means for analyzing the vegetation image to determine a nitrogen status of the crop-based on light reflected from the crop corrected for changes in ambient light intensity at a wavelength range in the green spectrum before the material application device has moved past the area; and a controller coupled to the material application device and the means for analyzing, wherein the controller is configured to determine corrective fertilizer treatments for the area based on the determined nitrogen status of the crop and to control the material application device to apply the corrective fertilizer treatments to the area.