PONE-D-21-36225Research on a rapid identification method for counting universal grain crops：a fast, accurate, low-cost, easy-to-operate, and universal grain counting toolPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Xiaochun Zhong,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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           ACADEMIC EDITOR:

• The manuscript is dealing with very important subject that is extracting data using images. II have myself also read the manuscript and found this very useful for the scholars/students working in the area. The manuscript needs improvement by keeping in view comments of the reviewer. Some of my own comments are:
  1. Improve presentation of data in tables and figures
  2. The different steps involved may be presented in the form of flow chart
  3. Test files may be provided in the form of supplementary material
  4. Language and grammatical issues could be rectified. 
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Reyazul Rouf Mir, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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“Xiaochun ZHONG, JBYW-AII-2020–29，Fundamental Scientific Research Business Expenses of Central Public Welfare Research Institutes，http://www.mof.gov.cn/index.htm， Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Review

TaoLIU, 32172110,31701355, National Natural Science Foundation of China, https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site_1/index.html,Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Editing

TaoLIU, BE2020319-14, Jiangsu Key Research and Development Program, http://czt.jiangsu.gov.cn/, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Editing

TaoLIU, CX(21)3065，CX(21)3063, Special Fund for Independent Innovation of Agricultural Science and Technology in Jiangsu, http://czt.jiangsu.gov.cn/, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Editing

Shengping LIU, CAAS-ASTIP-2016-AII，Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences，http://www.mof.gov.cn/index.htm，Funding acquisition, Supervision, review & editing”

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“This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172110,31701355), Fundamental Scientific Research Business Expenses of Central Public Welfare Research Institutes(JBYW-AII-2020–29), Jiangsu Key Research and Development Program(BE2020319-14), Special Fund for Independent Innovation of Agricultural Science and Technology in Jiangsu(CX(21)3065，CX(21)3063), Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS-ASTIP-2016-AII).”

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“Xiaochun ZHONG, JBYW-AII-2020–29，Fundamental Scientific Research Business Expenses of Central Public Welfare Research Institutes，http://www.mof.gov.cn/index.htm， Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Review

TaoLIU, 32172110,31701355, National Natural Science Foundation of China, https://www.nsfc.gov.cn/english/site_1/index.html,Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Editing

TaoLIU, BE2020319-14, Jiangsu Key Research and Development Program, http://czt.jiangsu.gov.cn/, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Editing

TaoLIU, CX(21)3065，CX(21)3063, Special Fund for Independent Innovation of Agricultural Science and Technology in Jiangsu, http://czt.jiangsu.gov.cn/, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Editing

Shengping LIU, CAAS-ASTIP-2016-AII，Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences，http://www.mof.gov.cn/index.htm，Funding acquisition, Supervision, review & editing”

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Additional Editor Comments:

The manuscript is dealing with very important subject that is extracting data using images. II have myself also read the manuscript and found this very useful for the scholars/students working in the area. The manuscript needs improvement by keeping in view comments of the reviewer. Some of my own comments are:

1. Improve presentation of data in tables and figures

2. The different steps involved may be presented in the form of flow chart

3. Test files may be provided in the form of supplementary material

4. Language and grammatical issues could be rectified.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study proposes a grain counting algorithm with a wide range of applications, which supports the calculation of the number of grains on white paper by taking pictures of mobile phones. The method proposed in this paper has low cost, simple operation and strong applicability. The problems are as follows:

1.Special perspective analysis section, How to explain the missed detection and error of feature points in the sample diagram, it is recommended to expand the description.

2.The code of the volatility is inconsistent with the calculation formula in Evaluation index.

3.In efficiency comparison section,there is no source for the counting machine with mechanical rotation takes 24 s.

4.The reference format of the two documents such as 31-32 is inconsistent with others.

5.It is recommended to remove the content of the lightbox and focus on analyzing the white paper background.

6.Capitalize the first letter in Figure S2.

7.In the evaluation of identification efficiency, "(3) The analysis time did not maintain a linear positive correlation with the number of grains in the picture. There were various factors that affected the running time, such as the tightness of the grains, size of the picture, and shape of the grains., etc." The conclusion of this sentence should be supported by corresponding experiments or cited.

8.Pay attention to the expression of some phrases. Thousand grain, over segmentation, open source, short axis, etc. should have hyphens, "mega pixels" should be changed to "megapixels"; "light boxes" should be changed to "lightboxes".

9.Pay attention to plurals and grammar.such as“0.7 second”changed to“0.7 seconds”, "provide power support" changed to "provide powerful support" , "robust to variety changes" changed to "robust to various changes".

10.Pay attention to the expressions of some statements, such as "There were various factors that affected the running time" changed to "various factors affected……”, "as Lines …… show in Fig 4" changed to "as Lines …… shown in Fig 4".

11.The sentence is not clear: To improve the calculation efficiency and shorten the response time, the original image was specially compressed, but excessive compression affected the accuracy of the algorithm.

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Reviewer #1: No

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Research on a rapid identification method for counting universal grain crops：a fast, accurate, low-cost, easy-to-operate, and universal grain counting tool

PONE-D-21-36225R1

Dear Dr.Xiaochun zhong,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Reyazul Rouf Mir, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

I am very happy to notice that authors has addressed the comments of the reviewer including my own comments in the revised version f the manuscript. Therefore, I have no hesitation in recommending acceptance of this manuscript.

Reviewers' comments: