Designing a mobile user interface for automated species identification

Biological research in the field is constrained by the speed and difficulty of species determination, as well as by access to relevant information about the species encountered. However, recent work on vision-based algorithms raises the promise of rapid botanical species identification. The potential for mobile vision-based identification provides opportunities for new user interface techniques. To explore these issues, we present LeafView, a Tablet-PC?based user interface for an electronic field guide that supports automated identification of botanical species in the field. We describe a user interface design based on an ethnographic study of botanists, field tests of working prototypes by botanists at the Smithsonian Institution on Plummers Island, Maryland, and observations at an internal exhibition at the Smithsonian at which other staff members tried the prototypes. We present functionality specific to mobile identification and collection in the electronic field guide and use thi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Sean White, Dominic Marino, Steven Feiner
• Keywords: Botanical Species Identification, CHI 2007, Electronic Field Guide, Human Computer Interaction, Mobile Vision-based Identification