[NatureNS] AI and species ID?

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From: Fritz McEvoy <fritzmcevoy@hotmail.com>
To: Ian Manning <ianmanning4@gmail.com>,
Thread-Topic: [NatureNS] AI and species ID?
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Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2019 23:45:18 +0000
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mes up with. I think you&amp;#39;ll be impr
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HI Ian,
     Thanks to you and Rick for your links to the 'Merlin' project. I hadn'=
t spotted Merlin on iNaturalist. I had a quick look and it's the kind of pr=
oject I'm interested in following. It looks like it's just starting but as =
AI improves could be very helpful to observers like me who deal with trying=
 to ID a lot of similar looking species from photos. This gives me a starti=
ng point for further research. All the best.
             Fritz
________________________________
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca <naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca> on beha=
lf of Ian Manning <ianmanning4@gmail.com>
Sent: February 17, 2019 3:49 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] AI and species ID?

Hi Fritz,

In the last six months or so, the inaturalist website added machine learnin=
g functionality to image observations, so now when an image is uploaded it =
will give you suggestions based on their machine learning image recognition=
 model, in the video I sent before around the 3-minute mark, Alex Shepard s=
ays the model can ID to common ancestor (higher level taxon) with an accura=
cy of 93%. Each time an observation is uploaded and vetted as "research gra=
de", that image is added to the image analysis training library (used to tr=
ain the model and make it more accurate down the line).

There's lots of other examples of Computer Science folks using Machine Lear=
ning for this type of thing for citizen science (see Merlin like Rick menti=
oned), and also a bunch of more specific/academic purposes, though as far a=
s I know, none are as accessible or ambitious as iNat. Here's some more inf=
o on the computer vision side of things. https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/=
computer_vision_demo


Cheers,
IM



On Sun, 17 Feb 2019 at 15:07, Fritz McEvoy <fritzmcevoy@hotmail.com<mailto:=
fritzmcevoy@hotmail.com>> wrote:
HI Ian,
     I've been on iNaturalist for a couple of years now and it is a great w=
ebpage. There are lots of sites like iNaturalist online now and they are re=
ally helpful for having others help you identify a species.
     The thing I'm asking about is a program that would allow someone to up=
load a photo and/or maybe some data (size, colour, location and whatever ot=
her ID info you have) of a fly, a leaf or a mouse etc. and have a AI comput=
er program take that photo and/or data and give you its guess as to Genus/s=
pecies identification based on it's algorithms - much like facial recogniti=
on and retina scans work today. All the best.
                        Fritz McEvoy
________________________________
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca<mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca> <=
naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca<mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>> on beh=
alf of Ian Manning <ianmanning4@gmail.com<mailto:ianmanning4@gmail.com>>
Sent: February 17, 2019 1:43 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca<mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] AI and species ID?

Try uploading a photo to iNaturalist and seeing what it comes up with. I th=
ink you'll be impressed.

Cheers,
IM


--
We're mapping research in Southwest Nova Scotia.
Link to your research project/publications here<https://goo.gl/forms/1JkoBR=
WIP3Kbvxl53>.


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HI Ian,&nbsp;</div>
<div style=3D"font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;=
 color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Thanks&nbsp;to you and Rick for your links to the 'Merl=
in' project. I hadn't spotted Merlin on iNaturalist. I had a quick look and=
 it's the kind of project I'm interested in following. It looks like it's j=
ust starting but as AI improves could be very helpful
 to observers like me who deal with trying to ID a lot of similar looking s=
pecies from photos. This gives me a starting point for further research. Al=
l the best.&nbsp;</div>
<div style=3D"font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;=
 color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Fritz</div>
<div id=3D"appendonsend"></div>
<hr style=3D"display:inline-block;width:98%" tabindex=3D"-1">
<div id=3D"divRplyFwdMsg" dir=3D"ltr"><font face=3D"Calibri, sans-serif" st=
yle=3D"font-size:11pt" color=3D"#000000"><b>From:</b> naturens-owner@chebuc=
to.ns.ca &lt;naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca&gt; on behalf of Ian Manning &lt=
;ianmanning4@gmail.com&gt;<br>
<b>Sent:</b> February 17, 2019 3:49 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> naturens@chebucto.ns.ca<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [NatureNS] AI and species ID?</font>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
</div>
<div>
<div dir=3D"ltr">
<div dir=3D"ltr">Hi Fritz,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In the last six months or so, the inaturalist website added machine le=
arning functionality to image observations, so now when an image is uploade=
d it will give you suggestions based on their machine learning image recogn=
ition model, in the video I sent
 before around the 3-minute mark, Alex Shepard says the model can ID to com=
mon ancestor (higher level taxon) with an accuracy of 93%. Each time an obs=
ervation is uploaded and vetted as &quot;research grade&quot;, that image i=
s added to the image analysis training library
 (used to train the model and make it more accurate down the line).&nbsp;</=
div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There's lots of other examples of Computer Science folks using Machine=
 Learning for this type of thing for citizen science (see Merlin like Rick =
mentioned), and also a bunch of more specific/academic purposes, though as =
far as I know, none are as accessible
 or ambitious as iNat. Here's some more info on the computer vision side of=
 things.&nbsp;<a href=3D"https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/computer_vision_=
demo">https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/computer_vision_demo</a></div>
<div><br>