SEEK, by INaturalist

[Jayden8763]

So, I think this is the correct forum to post this in, im not sure though, haven't been on Zoochat in a while, but anyways.

So I was just introduced to this wildlife identification app that's still being worked on, but can be downloaded, and it's called SEEK, (by INaturalist).

It's still developing so there's only around 80,000 species that can be scanned, but it applies most of the kingdoms that would be realistic for photographing regularly, (animal, plant, fungi).

The app, basically allows you to scan wildlife and identify it, and it works really well if you get the right angle, the trick is to keep moving the camera around until it identifies the species, (but not alot, just small tilting and other stuff). But it is really useful, and fun to be honest.

so if anyones interested in this, I would like to see who can have the highest amount of species in their collection (it keeps a collection of species identified).


if your interested, just reply to this thread, and download the app. (and before anyone asks, no, I don't work for them )

 

[Jayden8763]

oh and also, if you are interested, please post photos of species you've scanned, there's a setting for it on the app where it automatically saves the photo you've scanned.

 

[Prochilodus246]

So, I think this is the correct forum to post this in, im not sure though, haven't been on Zoochat in a while, but anyways.

So I was just introduced to this wildlife identification app that's still being worked on, but can be downloaded, and it's called SEEK, (by INaturalist).

It's still developing so there's only around 80,000 species that can be scanned, but it applies most of the kingdoms that would be realistic for photographing regularly, (animal, plant, fungi).

The app, basically allows you to scan wildlife and identify it, and it works really well if you get the right angle, the trick is to keep moving the camera around until it identifies the species, (but not alot, just small tilting and other stuff). But it is really useful, and fun to be honest.

so if anyones interested in this, I would like to see who can have the highest amount of species in their collection (it keeps a collection of species identified).


if your interested, just reply to this thread, and download the app. (and before anyone asks, no, I don't work for them )

I used to use SEEK when I was working on my native plant identification back in 2020 but I now more often use its parent iNaturalist as it's far more reliable as real people are identifying your species rather than artificial intelligence. I know a good few members on here use iNat. I'm currently on 1169 wild species identified at present.

SEEK I also find should be taken with a pinch of salt as it's by no means always accurate and often it requires crystal clear images for ID but even then it can be iffy with its results.

 

[DavidBrown]

I used to use SEEK when I was working on my native plant identification back in 2020 but I now more often use its parent iNaturalist as it's far more reliable as real people are identifying your species rather than artificial intelligence. I know a good few members on here use iNat. I'm currently on 1169 wild species identified at present.

SEEK I also find should be taken with a pinch of salt as it's by no means always accurate and often it requires crystal clear images for ID but even then it can be iffy with its results.

A major difference between SEEK and iNaturalist is that SEEK was designed for use by kids as it records no identifying information, unlike iNaturalist which requires one to have an account with personal identifying information. That difference was designed so that SEEK avoids the multiple legal and ethical challenges of internet laws protecting minors, while still letting minors use the functionality of iNaturalist as a nature exploration tool.

 

[Jayden8763]

Oh, Awesome, I just found that app and was like bet, but okay, I'll download INaturalist.

A major difference between SEEK and iNaturalist is that SEEK was designed for use by kids as it records no identifying information, unlike iNaturalist which requires one to have an account with personal identifying information. That difference was designed so that SEEK avoids the multiple legal and ethical challenges of internet laws protecting minors, while still letting minors use the functionality of iNaturalist as a nature exploration tool.

 

[Jayden8763]

this one seems way better actually, so lets change the topic then from seek to INaturalist, so is anyone interested in seeing how many new species they can identify? (Also, will it mistake a bird for an orca on this one too?)

 

[LaicaTheDino]

I've used iNaturalist for about a year now, I currently have 1,900 observations and 632 species recorded, so you can tell I am very passionate about this topic.
The great thing about it is that the community can help identifying species, so even if the AI would be confused that a bird might be an orca, you can label it as "Bird" and members of the community can make finer IDs until a species. You can also get in contact with various experts or other naturalists if you have any questions!

 

[Jayden8763]

Yeah, i've been using it alot the past few days, it's really awesome, sadly, I don't have any proper cameras, and so my pictures of animals are not usually good quality. The worst part is i'm extremely good at photographing good scenes, but they sometimes don't come out good due to the quality. I got a photo of the Pygmy Marmoset at Perth zoo playing in a TIRE SWING POKING IT'S HEAD OUT OF IT, But i had to zoom in, it's so adorable but it's such bad quality. I did upload it so you should be able to find it on there.

 

[WalkingAgnatha]

I would reccomend not uploading captive obs on iNat or at the very least ensuring you mark said obs as casual
I'm also a fanatic iNat user with ~6.2k obs and ~1.3k species & ~7k IDs as of present plus nearing a year of backlog that I have to upload haha, general best practise the AI ID whilst it can work quite well is quite hit or miss, of course especially when subjects are very small in frame of a photo it'll tend to get it wrong, most of the time (eg tetrapods), I'll just put in the ID that I know but for taxa that I'm not as familiar with a 'higher'/more imprecise identification is usually best, whilst the AI can be helpful it does also tend to be wrong, eg give you suggestions extremely out of range ..., I often use the suggestions it gives me as a way to tune a 'basic ID' and then if I have time figure it out myself or hope someone in the community identifies it for me (but with these taxa be aware that you will not get a species level identification quite a bit of the time, there's still a lot you can get to species though). [You can't always trust the latter either, generally when you use the app enough you know the IDers that 'know what they're talking about' but of course everyone can get things wrong], I'd also recommend not IDing other peoples observations with AI IDs or anything that you 'think looks right' unless you're familiar with the taxa, know what species look similar and are extremely confident with the ID.

 

[Mossman Joe]

iNaturalist is awesome, I've only got 300 observations, and it's been a while since I've last had another, but it's nice that I get notifications that observations 5-6 years ago are still getting debated

I got a photo of the Pygmy Marmoset at Perth zoo playing in a TIRE SWING POKING IT'S HEAD OUT OF IT, But i had to zoom in, it's so adorable but it's such bad quality. I did upload it so you should be able to find it on there.

As said above, make sure you mark it as a captive specimen, while iNaturalist does explicitly allow records of captive animals, it's not the primary function of the site

What does captive / cultivated mean?

 

[Jayden8763]

yeah, I have been giving as detailed as possible of an observation for each species, but I have been uploading alot of captive species, the app might not be for that, but I do enjoy doing it, cause it feels satisfying in a way, like collecting observations of species, (sort of like a pokedex for animals lol) you know? I did get two rainbow lorikeets that were sitting in a hollow of a tree, in their nest, under a bee or wasp nest, just poking their heads out, and it looked amazing, but it wasn't too good of quality......... But it did qualify as research grade.

 

[Jayden8763]

here's the picture, if only it was a good quality one

 

[WalkingAgnatha]

But it did qualify as research grade.

I mean any photo can as long as it's identifiable, not your fault its not good quality if you don't have the optics for it, it's always nice to just observe anyways : )