For many people, the identification of timbers is carried out simply by just looking at their colours, appearance and some specific features on the timber. However the method mentioned has its limitation as most timbers may eventually look alike (especially on tropical timbers) after having been exposed to the weather for some times. Therefore, the
identification of timber should be based on the features that are reliable i.e anatomical structure, rather than on the features mentioned above.
Every timber or a group of very closely related timbers possesses a characteristic end surface, that is, the cells are so arranged as to produce a distinctive pattern. Thus, the identification of timber requires memorizing these distinctive patterns. It is of course, not an easy task to the various patterns and features of so many types of timber in the market unless or she is doing it on a regular basis. As such, there is a need to provide an app that allows semi-trained or untrained personnel to capture, process, and identify the unknown wood sample. This app can be downloaded into a smartphone (iphone 6 or 6s for the moment) and it is free to identify up to 20 local Malaysian timber groups. The app will be upgraded to identify up to 100 local timbers in the near future.