title: Automatic and Online Pollen Monitoring.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pollen are monitored in Europe by a network of about 400 pollen traps, all operated manually. To date, automated pollen monitoring has only been feasible in areas with limited variability in pollen species. There is a need for rapid reporting of airborne pollen as well as for alleviating the workload of manual operation. We report our experience with a fully automated, image recognition-based pollen monitoring system, BAA500.
  
  
  METHODS
  The BAA500 sampled ambient air intermittently with a 3-stage virtual impactor at 60 m3/h in Munich, Germany. Pollen is deposited on a sticky surface that was regularly moved to a microscope equipped with a CCD camera. Images of the pollen were constructed and compared with a library of known samples. A Hirst-type pollen trap was operated simultaneously.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over 480,000 particles sampled with the BAA500 were both manually and automatically identified, of which about 46,000 were pollen. Of the automatically reported pollen, 93.3% were correctly recognized. However, compared with manual identification, 27.8% of the captured pollen were missing in the automatic report, with most reported as unknown pollen. Salix pollen grains were not identified satisfactorily. The daily pollen concentrations reported by a Hirst-type pollen trap and the BAA500 were highly correlated (r = 0.98).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The BAA500 is a functional automated pollen counter. Its software can be upgraded, and so we expected its performance to improve upon training. Automated pollen counting has great potential for workload reduction and rapid online pollen reporting.
authors: ZAUM, Center of Allergy &amp; Environment, Helmholtz Zentrum Mx00FC;nchen, Technische Universitx00E4;t Mx00FC;nchen, Munich, Germany.
authors: Jose
authors: J
authors: Oteros
authors: Gudrun
authors: G
authors: Pusch
authors: Ingrid
authors: I
authors: Weichenmeier
authors: Ulrich
authors: U
authors: Heimann
authors: Rouven
authors: R
authors: Möller
authors: Stefani
authors: S
authors: Röseler
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Traidl-Hoffmann
authors: Carsten
authors: C
authors: Schmidt-Weber
authors: Jeroen T M
authors: JT
authors: Buters
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D000485:Allergens / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D001331:Automation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D011058:Pollen / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000276:immunology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D000485:Allergens