Among other automatic identification programs for flora and fauna is one developed by a team of researchers at Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida, which includes Kelly Debure, an associate professor of computer science. The program identifies individual dolphins based on photographs of their dorsal fins, which have characteristic nicks and notches.
At one time, the matching was done by hand, “but the task becomes daunting when the catalog grows enormous,” Debure said.
The group primarily studies dolphins in Tampa Bay. The Florida Aquarium there may use the program at a kiosk, she said, so that people can identify individual dolphins in photographs, perhaps leading to a greater concern with water quality and boating regulations affecting dolphins. The software is free to download at code.google.com/p/darwin-ec and is being used by groups around the world, Debure said.
Matthew Brown, supervisor of the soil, water and ecology lab at the Central Park Conservancy, thinks the programs can be useful.
“If people are walking through the park and they come upon a tree that’s not in their field guide they can snap a photo, send it in, and get the name back and find out more information,” he said.
But he believes in traditional education, too.
“People don’t have to take botany for four years, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the value of learning information. If a computer can figure it all out, we can get lazy,” he said.
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