WASHINGTON
(AP) — If you've ever wondered what type of tree was nearby but didn't
have a guide book, a new smartphone app allows users with no formal
training to satisfy their curiosity and contribute to science at the
same time.
Scientists
have developed the first mobile app to identify plants by simply
photographing a leaf. The free iPhone and iPad app, called Leafsnap,
instantly searches a growing library of leaf images amassed by the
Smithsonian Institution. In seconds, it returns a likely species name,
high-resolution photographs and information on the tree's flowers,
fruit, seeds and bark.
Users
make the final identification and share their findings with the app's
growing database to help map the population of trees one mobile phone at
a time.
Leafsnap
debuted in May, covering all the trees in New York's Central park and
Washington's Rock Creek Park. It has been downloaded more than 150,000
times in the first month, and its creators expect it to continue to grow
as it expands to Android phones.
By this summer, it will include all the trees of the Northeast and eventually will cover all the trees of North America.
Smithsonian
research botanist John Kress, who created the app with engineers from
Columbia University and the University of Maryland, said it was
originally conceived in 2003 as a high-tech aid for scientists to
discover new species in unknown habitats. The project evolved, though,
with the emergence of smartphones to become a new way for citizens to
contribute to research.
"This
is going to be able to populate a database of every tree in the United
States," Kress said. "I mean that's millions and millions and millions
of trees, so that would be really neat."
It's
also the first real chance for citizens to directly access some of the
science based on the nearly 5 million specimens kept by the U.S.
National Herbarium at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
History. The collection began in 1848 and is among the world's 10
largest plant collections.
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