In 2015, a phone application called Leaf Doctor was introduced for free on iPhone, iPad and iPods. Now, almost three years later, the app is also available on Android and Google devices

Researchers at University of Hawaii at Manoa, in conjunction with a team from Cornell University, N.Y., developed the app as a convenient tool that anyone can use to diagnose a plant.

To use the application, all you have to do is take a photo of a specific leaf or fruit and the app will analyze that photograph then display the percentage and severity of the disease visible. The information that the app acquires can then be sent to an email, or viewed right on the phone, and includes useful topics such as the name of the host plant, disease name, location of disease on the plant and any suggested treatment options.

An article by Cornell suggests that, in the future, it may be possible to take an aerial photo of a large landscape or field and analyze the extent of a certain plant disease within a larger area, as opposed to just a single leaf.