In a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Small Business Innovation Research program, researchers in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, IntelinAir, Inc. and Columbia University are investigating whether remote sensing and computer vision can help pineapple growers carry out regular inspection of the field and automated counting of flower intensity. The natural flowering of pineapple was the basis of the industry up until the 1960s. Now, pineapple fields are forced in blocks to flower, with a chemical that releases ethylene and induces flowering, making the fruit available year-round. Since pineapple is hand-harvested, a grower’s ability to harvest all of the fruit of a field in a single pass is critical to reduce field losses, costs, and waste, and to maximize efficiency.