South African scientists are monitoring airborne pollen with artificial intelligence (AI), which provided an increasing number of hay fever and asthma sufferers.
Scientists manually counted airborne pollen and spore types using volumetric air samplers, but with the latest developments in image recognition methods and machine learning, automating this process has become feasible.
Researchers are able to build a system for South Africa that is capable of identifying and categorising pollen more accurately, and at much faster rates.
The pollen count and allergy information for Welkom showed grass pollen as the highest in the city which means people may suffer from a runny nose, sneezing, and stiffness. The count showed no signs of tree pollen and ragweed pollen in the city for the rest of the week.
Grass weed that grows wildly causes an allergic reaction known as seasonal allergies. Tree pollen is the most common cause of spring allergy symptoms, and stems from a powder produced by the male part of a flower. Ragweed pollen causes major allergic symptoms as ragweed releases a high amount of pollen in the air, making people have more extreme symptoms like hay fever and skin rashes than other pollen allergies.
