The challenge is that hyperspectral images contain enormous quantities of information. [Courtesy]
Kenya is entering an important moment in its development journey. Vision 2030 remains the country's long-term development blueprint, but the government has now begun a national conversation on a new development vision that will succeed it.
President William Ruto has called on Kenyans to participate in shaping this long-term vision and to think about the kind of country future generations should inherit.
This conversation should not only be about roads, housing, manufacturing, healthcare or economic growth.
It should also ask a fundamental question: what technologies will enable Kenya to understand and solve its problems more intelligently? Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly be part of that discussion.
But one technology that deserves considerably more attention is hyperspectral imaging.
Hyperspectral imaging allows sensors to capture information across hundreds of narrow spectral bands, far beyond the few colour channels used by an ordinary camera.
This matters because materials interact with light differently. A crop that appears healthy to the human eye may have spectral characteristics indicating stress, while different types of vegetation, soil and other materials can exhibit distinctive spectral signatures.