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Curating Reference Images

Plant identification works by comparing a user's uploaded photo against a stored reference index: for each plant species, several license-clean reference images are stored as feature vectors (DINOv2 embeddings). The more carefully this index is curated, the more accurately the recognition engine performs.

As a platform admin, you can manually deselect individual reference images after a visual inspection so they no longer influence recognition results. Deselected images are retained in the system (audit trail) and can be reactivated at any time.

Platform admins only

Curation is exclusively available to users with the platform role admin. Regular users see only active reference images in the public gallery.

Why do poor reference images affect recognition?

The system compares the user's photo against every individual reference image of a species — not a single prototype. If a reference image is unsuitable, it can cause incorrect matches:

Image problem Possible effect
Blurry image Feature vectors are non-specific; the engine may favour randomly similar species
Wrong organ (e.g. bark instead of leaf) The system matches on the wrong plant feature
Wrong species shown All results for this species are "polluted" by a misidentified specimen
Duplicate (same photo more than once) One particular perspective is over-represented
Irrelevant content (soil, pot, background only) No plant feature present; adds noise to the index

By selectively deselecting such images you improve recognition accuracy for the affected species without permanently losing any data.

  1. Sign in as a platform admin.
  2. Open the Plant Master Data section from the side menu.
  3. Click on a plant species (e.g. Monstera deliciosa) to open the species detail page.
  4. Switch to the Reference Images tab.

The gallery shows all reference images for this species. Deselected images appear greyed out and carry the label Deselected.

Hide deselected

As soon as at least one image is deselected, a Hide deselected images toggle appears at the top. When enabled, the gallery shows only the active images currently used in recognition. If this leaves no images visible, a corresponding hint is shown.

Jump to the image source

Each image tile has an open icon (↗) in the bottom right. Clicking it opens the image's original source (GBIF, Wikimedia, etc.) in a new tab — handy for checking the license, author, and higher-resolution variants.

Deselecting an Image

Step 1: Assess the image visually

Look carefully at the reference image. Typical reasons for exclusion:

  • The image is blurry or too dark
  • The wrong plant part is shown (e.g. the pot instead of a leaf)
  • The plant in the image looks like a different species
  • The same image appears more than once in the gallery (duplicate)
  • The image content is not botanically relevant (e.g. label photo, pure habitat shot)

Step 2: Open the deselect dialog

On the image tile, click the Deselect icon (crossed-out eye) in the bottom right. The deselect dialog opens.

Step 3: Select the reason

In the dialog, choose the appropriate exclusion reason:

Reason When to use
Blurry (blurry) Image too blurry to provide a meaningful feature
Wrong plant organ (wrong_organ) Does not show the expected organ (leaf, flower, fruit, bark)
Wrong species (wrong_species) A different species is depicted
Duplicate (duplicate) This image already exists in another form in the gallery
Irrelevant (irrelevant) No usable plant content (soil, pot, pure habitat shot)
Manual (manual) Other reason not covered by the above

Step 4: Confirm the deselection

Click Confirm. The following notice is shown:

Effect of deselection

This image will be removed from plant identification. It remains stored in the system and can be reactivated at any time.

After confirmation the image is immediately excluded from the active recognition index. The change takes effect for all new identification requests — any requests already in progress are not affected.

Responding to Coverage Warnings

If the number of active reference images for a species drops below 5 through deselection, the gallery displays the following warning:

Recognition coverage reduced

This species has only [n] active reference images (minimum threshold: 5). Recognition may become unreliable or return no results for this species.

From this point on, users are informed transparently during photo identification that this species may not be reliably recognised. To restore full coverage you can:

  • Reactivate previously deselected images (if sufficient suitable ones remain)
  • Re-populate the reference index for this species (see Setting Up Plant Identification)

Reactivating a Deselected Image

  1. Open the reference image gallery for the affected species (tab Reference Images).
  2. Deselected images are visible by default (grey tile with the Deselected label). If the Hide deselected images toggle is on, switch it off.
  3. On the grey tile, click the Reactivate icon (restore) in the bottom right.

The image is immediately active again and will be included in the next identification request.

Audit trail

Every deselection and reactivation is recorded with a timestamp, the exclusion reason, and the acting user. The log is accessible under Admin > Activity Log.

API Access (for automation)

If you want to perform curation actions via script (e.g. batch deselection after an automated quality scan), the following endpoints are available:

Retrieve all reference images for a species (including deselected):

GET /admin/reference-images/{species_key}/images

The response field is_active: false identifies deselected images. exclusion_reason contains the stored reason and marked_at the timestamp of the last curation action.

Deselect or reactivate an image:

PATCH /admin/reference-images/{species_key}/images/{id}

Request body (deselect):

{
  "is_active": false,
  "reason": "wrong_organ"
}

Request body (reactivate):

{
  "is_active": true,
  "reason": null
}

Authentication

Both endpoints require a valid JWT with the platform role admin. For automated access a Service Account is recommended.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the image permanently deleted when I deselect it?

No. Deselection is a soft delete: the image remains in the system with all its metadata (source, licence, attribution, embedding vector). Only the is_active flag is set to false. You can reactivate the image at any time.

What happens to identification requests that are already in progress?

Requests that have already started are not affected. The deselected image will no longer be used in any requests started after the deselection. The change takes effect immediately for new requests.

Can regular users see deselected images?

No. The public gallery (species detail page visible to all users) shows only active reference images. Deselected images are only visible in the admin curation view.

How many reference images does a species need for reliable recognition?

The minimum threshold is 5 active reference images. 10–30 images per species from different angles and growth stages are recommended. Below 5 images, the system displays an uncertainty notice during recognition.

How were the reference images obtained?

Reference images are sourced automatically from GBIF and Wikimedia Commons — exclusively images under CC0 or CC-BY licences. The acquisition pipeline filters by quality criteria (minimum resolution, aspect ratio), but cannot detect all content issues. Manual curation complements this automatic pre-selection.

Can I automate a quality scan and use the API?

Yes. The PATCH endpoint is designed exactly for this use case. Create a service account with the admin role, run your quality scan, and call the endpoint for each image you want to deselect.

See Also