Japan’s famous cherry trees are getting old, but a new AI tool evaluating photos of the delicate pink and white flowers can help preserve them for future generations.

The “Sakura” season is expected feverish by both local and visitors, with the abundance of the amazing flowers that mark the start of spring. But many of the trees reach 70 to 80 years old, far beyond their primary flowering age.

This means increasing the cost of tending to the trees and maintaining popular flowering spots.

To help the authorities identify the ailing examples, brewing of giant Kirin developed a tool called Sakura AI camera.

It tells users the condition and trees’ age based on photos they take with their smartphones and upload to a site.

A five-point scale-only available in Japanese for now-buckle from “very healthy” to “worrying”.

A tree with healthy flowers that bloom close to the tips of the branches gets top marks.

The artificial intelligence tool has been trained using 5,000 images of cherry trees using experts.

The images are then mapped on the Sakura AI camera’s website with details such as wooden mode and location.

“We heard that the preservation of Sakura requires labor and money and that it is difficult to collect information,” Risa Shioda told Kirin to AFP.

“I think we can contribute by making it easier to plan for preservation,” she said.

About 20,000 photos have been collected since the launch last month, with the data available online for free to local authorities.

Worth a million

According to Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, famous for his river banks lined with cherry trees, a new one costs a new one million yen ($ 6,800).

Hiroyuki Wada from the Japan Tree Doctors Association, who inspects cherry trees in larger places in Tokyo, helped oversee the AI ​​tool.

He said he hopes it will help experts study the environmental causes of the breakdown of some of the trees he sees.

In part, he accuses climate change.

“I’m very concerned. Changes in the environment are usually gradual but now it’s visible,” he said AFP.

“There are influences from the heat and of course the lack of rainfall,” he said. “The age of the trees, of course, makes the situation more serious.”

Japan’s weather agency said in January that last year they were the hottest since the records began, just like other nations.

Kirin began to donate some of his profits to preserve cherry trees last year, as a way of “paying back” to the communities.

Alcohol, especially beer, is one of the drinks enjoyed on “Hanami” flower-viewing parties under the trees, Shioda said.

Cherry blossoms symbolize life’s fragility in Japanese culture, as full flowers only last about a week before the petals begin to fall off trees.

The season is also considered one of the changes as it marks the start of the new business year, with many university educators starting their first full -time job and older colleagues who change to new positions.