RootVision

A window into the root zone.

Root data has always meant digging: one destructive snapshot, taken when there was time, of roots you'll never see again. RootVision stays in the ground. Set beside the row, it photographs the same 30 cm of soil profile on your schedule from planting to harvest, so you watch roots arrive, branch and respond to water, heat and treatment as it happens, and finish the season with a timelapse instead of a guess.

Technical whitepaper
30 cm+of soil profile in every capture
2 monthson a single charge*
Multipointsoil temperature down the profile
WiFi · Cloud · LoRareach it on site or from anywhere

*Up to two months at one capture a day. Pre-release figures; final specifications to follow.

How it works

One capture cycle

Set a schedule and walk away. Every cycle, RootVision wakes, focuses, captures the whole profile and goes back to sleep, with no one in the field.

01 — WAKE

Sleeps on less than 22 µA

Between cycles the main computer is switched off completely. Only the clock and the LoRa radio stay awake, and the whole unit draws less than 22 µA, so the battery goes into imaging, not waiting. When the alarm fires, it powers up and gets to work.

02 — FOCUS

Sharp on day one, sharp on day ninety

Soil settles and mornings turn cold, and a fixed lens would drift out of focus. Before every capture, each camera lights its own LEDs and steps its lens back into focus.

03 — CAPTURE

The whole profile, evenly lit

The camera LEDs switch off and two diffused panels light the clear face from behind, with no hotspots or glare. Six 8 MP cameras capture in turn, from the surface down.

04 — STITCH & SLEEP

One continuous profile, then back to sleep

The images upload, and RootSynapse stitches them into a single panorama using each unit's own calibration, so roots run on cleanly across every seam. Each cycle joins the season's timelapse. The unit sets its next alarm and powers down.

The same cycle in RootSynapse: the schedule while it sleeps, the gallery filling in camera by camera, the stitched panorama, then the season's timelapse.

Built for the field

More than a camera

RootVision knows where it is, what the soil temperature is at every depth, and how much charge it has, and it stays in touch however your site is connected.

Soil temperature

A temperature at every camera

Six sensors sit down the back of the unit, one behind each camera, so every image comes with the soil temperature at that depth. RootSynapse plots the history: the shallow sensors swing with the day, the deep ones barely move.

Battery
2 monthson one charge, at one capture a day

Months in the field on one charge

Two 21700 cells, 4900 mAh in all, and a unit that sleeps on less than 22 µA between captures: up to two months at one capture a day. RootSynapse keeps each unit's charge history, so you know which ones need a visit before they need it.

USB-C
IP67sealed charging port

Charge through a sealed port

The USB-C port sits under a screw-down IP67-rated cap. Unscrew it to charge, screw it back on before the unit goes back in the ground. A wired data link over the same port is coming in the next hardware revision.

GPS

Every unit on the map

Each unit finds its own location, and RootSynapse puts it on a map with the rest of your fleet. Know exactly which plot a panorama came from, and find a unit again next season.

WiFi & Cloud

Change settings from anywhere

On site, connect over your WiFi, or straight to the unit's own access point. Off site, send changes through the cloud: the unit picks up its new schedule, camera settings or network the next time it connects, and uploads its images the same way.

LoRa wake
< 22 µAwhile it waits, listening for the call

Wake it without waiting for the schedule

A low-power LoRa radio inside every unit listens while the cameras sleep. Call it with a RootBeacon and it wakes on demand, ready for a capture, a sync or a settings change, without waiting for its next scheduled cycle.

Meet RootBeacon →
Go deeper

The full technical picture

Optics, power, connectivity and the data pipeline are covered in the RootVision whitepaper.

Read the whitepaper