Spectre, Hectre’s computer vision AI fruit sizing solution which delivers fruit sizing estimates straight from an iPad within seconds, has been feeling pretty “cherry” of late! With apples, oranges, lemons and mandarins now all optimized for Spectre for Size (and Spectre for Colour for apples too), cherry lovers were keen to get in on the Spectre action and we’re excited to announce that the Spectre for Cherries project is now underway.
Cherry growers operate within a premium fruit market and getting your hands on early accurate sizing data can create significant advantages. Often cherries are on the shelf within 100 hours of being picked, and that timing can include flight freight, so timing is everything and timely data brings big benefits.
Over the past few months we’ve been speaking with a number of our fabulous Hectre cherry customers, gaining a deeper understanding of their Spectre needs and their use cases. A big shout out to Cherri Global in NZ and Sage Fruit in the US for providing fantastic use case information. We don’t build solutions because they’re fun to build, we build them because our customers need them and customer input is something we value extremely highly.
Last week, Ali from our Washington team visited the helpful folk at Sage Fruit and collected imagery for the Spectre for Cherries build. Our Auckland R&D team are now working on stage three of the project, where they train the computer through machine learning, how to interpret what it’s seeing and learn from it.
Size data gives greater confidence to sell your fruit
Being able to get early accurate size data means cherry businesses can:
- Assess the pick early, ensuring the right size profile is being picked and adjusting if necessary (and coaching pickers for improved performance)
- Provide early size data straight off the orchard to the packhouse to enable streamlined packing
- Give sales agents confidence to sell at the earliest possible opportunity because they really know what they’ve got to sell
Plump firm cherries are bursting with delicious flavour which is reason enough for most of us to reach for a bunch, but did you know that cherries are also amazing for your health? A recent article in Medical News Today details scientific evidence regarding the health benefits of cherries – check this out:
- Problems sleeping? Cherries could get you off to the land of zzz as they’re a rich natural source of melatonin, the neurotransmitter that influences sleep and mood.
- Cherries may help people battling inflammation
- Got some painful gout? Grab some cherries!
- Need to get your blood pressure down? Cherries might help with that too!
Sooo many reasons to love cherries!
