Iristick.Collector launches for hands-free data collection

April 9, 2025, Iristick.Collector is on Google Play and the App Store. Researchers in greenhouses, trial fields and labs pair their phone with Iristick smart glasses, read each plot or sample in the display and speak the score, so one person does the work that used to take two and nothing has to be typed up afterwards.

Why does trial data still end up on a clipboard?

Scoring a trial is repetitive, precise work, and it usually takes two people. One kneels at the plant, the plot or the sample tray and calls out the values, while the other writes them down or taps them into a tablet. Back at the office someone types the sheets into a spreadsheet, and every handwritten 7 that gets read as a 1 ends up in the dataset.

Plant breeders, crop science teams, pharma labs and contract research organizations all run some version of this routine. The scorer needs both hands for the plant, the pipette or the sample, the person with the pen needs to keep up, and the results only become usable once the transcription is done and checked.

How does hands-free data collection work with Iristick.Collector?

Iristick.Collector replaces the clipboard with a template you speak into. The setup happens once, in the Collector platform on a PC. You define a template with the traits or parameters you score, upload an asset list with your plots, plants or samples, and invite the people who will collect.

In the field the scorer starts an observation on the phone, tucks it away and works from the glasses. A typical round goes like this:

1. The display in the glasses shows the current asset and the first trait to score.

2. The scorer says "Scan barcode" and the glasses read the label on the plot or sample, so the record is linked to the right asset.

3. They speak each value digit by digit, check it in the display and move to the next trait.

4. Where a value needs context, they say "Start recording" and dictate a note, or say "Capture" to take a photo that is stored with the asset.

5. "Next item" and "New record" move them through the template and the asset list without touching the phone.

Collector works offline, so a greenhouse or a field with no signal is not a problem. The observations sync to the portal once the phone is back online, and you export them as a CSV for analysis, or as a ZIP that includes every photo.

A crop science researcher scores plants in the greenhouse with Iristick.G2 PRO smart glasses.

Built with the researchers who score every day

Collector was not designed at a desk. It grew out of years of field testing with crop science teams, starting with Bayer's first voice and smart glasses trials in 2019, and out of the feedback of every pilot customer since. Each round of testing changed something: how the display lays out a score, which voice commands a scorer actually uses, how barcode scanning fits into a step.

"The Iristick smart glasses have really changed the way we phenotype plants in both our greenhouse and on the field."

"These hands-free glasses allow us to work more efficiently and faster, and thus saving us valuable time in the plant phenotyping process," says Kirin Demuynck, Lab Manager at VIB. "The builtin camera provides clear images while the barcode scanner ensures quick plant identification. The software interface is intuitive and easy to work with, making it simple to capture and analyze data."

Bayer Crop Science US measured what hands-free scoring does at scale. Across more than seven divisions, staff collecting crop data saw productivity up 50%, accuracy up 25% and consistency up 20%, as published on our agriculture page.

What can you do with it today, and what comes next?

Collector is built for structured, repetitive scoring: phenotyping, crop inspections, field trials and sample checks where the same traits are recorded for hundreds of assets. It is a poor fit for free-form reports with no fixed structure.

Two limits are worth knowing before you plan a trial. Voice commands work in English only for now, and Collector moves through your asset list in list order, so you set up the list to match the route you walk. Both are on the roadmap, and both came straight from customer feedback.

To get started, create an account at collector.iristick.app, install the app from Google Play or the App Store, and build your first template. For more on where smart glasses fit in agri-food work, read four ways smart glasses help agri-food professionals.

See how Iristick.Collector captures field data hands-free, or talk to us about your setup.