Shazam-like App Uses Images To Identify Animal And Plant Species
This Shazam-like app uses images to identify animal and plant species and it might just be the hottest and most useful app we’ve ever stumbled upon. Well, at least lately. Have you found anything better? (PS. If so, let us know!)
iNaturalist released this new app called Seek, which is part of an ongoing project meant to involve ordinary people in science projects. Everyone can partake and all you need is a sense of observation and, well… a smartphone to take photos.
Based sort of on the way Shazam works, where you can identify a song by recording little bits of it with your phone, Seek uses the photos you take to identify the animal or plant species you are looking at.
By using the app, Seek users are encouraged to wonder around and explore the environment and identify as many animals and plants as they can. Basically, you will become a wildlife and nature explore who will be rewarded with different badges, depending on your achievements. Sounds fun, right?
Seek takes its information from the data base already present on iNaturalist and it also has artificial intelligence components and a neural network to constantly improve and generate results.
Users start with a collection of already identified plants and animals, and when a new photo is added, the AI behind the app finds the match and adds it to the constantly growing database while providing the user with useful information from Wikipedia.
Seek currently can recognize approximately 30,000 species and it continues to improve and grow with users’ contributions.
“The only way we can improve our modeling of species is to get more data, and to do that we need more people outside taking pictures,” says Scott Loarie, the site’s co-founder.
If you want to start exploring right now, download the Seek app on iOS devices.
Also, be sure to follow their progress on Facebook, Twitter and their official website.