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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2013-07-29 06:38, spike wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p> </o:p><span style="color:black">Consider
for instance this magnificent beauty:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="color:black"><img
id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:part1.08040505.03050600@aleph.se" alt="Mt.
Rainier Tiger Beetle - Cicindela depressula" height="148"
width="254" border="0"></span><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">I have been hiking for years up at Mount
Rainier, and had never seen one of these that I recall. The
photo above is about 2x actual size. I spent some time
observing them, after having the good fortune of showing up
apparently right after they hatched. I yearned to know more
about these beasts, while I was still there on site to
observe. Later I found out it is likely a Cicindela
depressula. Kewall!</p>
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<br>
Indeed. The dispirited tiger beetle! (the name apparently has to do
with the "broken elbow" in the patterning, rather than any mood in
the beetle) I know the problem of photographing tiger beetles - they
refuse to sit still for a picture. <br>
<br>
An automatic species detector would be awesome. But it is tricky to
get the species right. I can imagine software recognizing the
picture above as "a cincidelid beetle", and likely homing in on a
few likely species based on color and location. But to get to
Cicindela depressula you need to check the length of the labrum and
how the eybrow bristles look - and that requires a facial closeup.
Many species are even worse, you need to dissect them to figure out
what they are. So the species detector should have a micro-DNA
sample device too, in order to use DNA barcodes.<br>
<br>
There are a few projects going in this direction:<br>
<a
href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00371-013-0782-8">http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00371-013-0782-8</a><br>
<a
href="http://www.ppgia.pucpr.br/%7Ealekoe/Papers/ISM2011-Koerich.pdf">http://www.ppgia.pucpr.br/~alekoe/Papers/ISM2011-Koerich.pdf</a><br>
<a
href="http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/%7Eml/publications/2006/MayoSGAI_2006.pdf">http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/publications/2006/MayoSGAI_2006.pdf</a><br>
<a
href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6481468&sortType%3Dasc_p_Sequence%26filter%3DAND%28p_IS_Number%3A4358066%29">https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6481468&sortType%3Dasc_p_Sequence%26filter%3DAND(p_IS_Number%3A4358066)</a><br>
<a href="http://leafsnap.com/">http://leafsnap.com/</a><br>
<br>
It seems to me that sensor fusion is the way to go: use pictures,
animations, recorded birdsong, whatever to help focus the search.
One could use something like <a
href="http://people.csail.mit.edu/torralba/tinyimages/">http://people.csail.mit.edu/torralba/tinyimages/</a>
or <a
href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.se/2013/06/fast-accurate-detection-of-100000.html">http://googleresearch.blogspot.se/2013/06/fast-accurate-detection-of-100000.html</a>
to do an overall guess at what kind of critter it is, then apply
local expert software to narrow things down. In many cases it will
just tell you "some kind of cincidelid" or "little brown thing" due
to lack of information, but I suspect it will be amazingly good
under the right circumstances. <br>
<br>
I think we will get the system eventually. And probably sooner than
it looks. <br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
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