Development of leaf shape model using B-Spline generative shape method and leaf shape synthesis system

The aim of this research is to develop model of leaf shape outline drawing from botanical textual description. The B-spline generative shape method (BsGSM) and the leaf shape synthesis system were used in this research. The approach was based on merging tip, side and base shape, plus marginal details. The structure of the system consists of three main parts which were the text processing module, shape template and drawing module. Two expert botanists were referred to assess the drawing result to ensure the result is parallel with a botanical point of view. The findings show that the use of BsGSM produced good result except for some minor visual error. A similar result was also obtained while producing the details of the leaf. The shape template appeared simple and very useful for easier information retrieval. As a conclusion, the BsGSM was practical to model and produce the details of leaf. The developed leaf shape synthesis system facilitates amateur and novice botanists to readily see a picture which hard to visualize through BsGSM. The implication is, the developed model and system enables botanists to check whether the textual written description in the botanical text are correct and be useful as an aid to determine whether botanists use terminology consistently.