If you are not registered your life may be in danger. This is a reality for human beings and for the natural world, like coral reefs.
In these corona times social distancing and lock downs means an increase in citizen scientists. Now you can assist NASA to register coral reefs through the video game NASA NeMO-Net, launched in april. The game itself is a noteworthy way to preserve coral reefs. What is really cool is how the images for this game is taken.
Data
Collecting data is one of the most time consuming parts of science. A bit like a fish trawl, you get huge amounts of data you are not looking for. So you need to interpret and sort them. It takes time. But, you do not need a degree in marine biology to separate a fish from a coral reef. Citizen scientists, volunteers can help doing this job.
Also read: New deadly stroke for Great Barrier Reef
“Liquid” lenses and algorithms
Under water photography is fun, but the images will always have a water filter, obviously. You don’t capture what it looks like, if it hadn’t been for the water around. The algorithm Sea-thru fix this. It understands what the water conditions do with the light and calculates and reverses the water effect. The result is an image as if the water wasn’t there.
NASA recently developed a camera lense based on the same principle, a so called liquid lense. The algorithm “straighten” out the curls on the ocean surface. The result is that you get crystal clear images of what is underneath the surface.
I have never heard about it.
The site freethink explains: The lenses are put on drones and planes to massively photograph the ocean bed and coral reefs in Guam, Puerto Rico and American Samoa. The images are uploaded and made available in the video game NeMO-Net.
As you enter the game, you also enter the research vessel Nautilus. Your task is to recognise and classify coral reefs. As you play, your contribution is twofold. First, you help to separate coral reefs from other species and the sea bed. As you do this, the computer also learns what coral reefs look like. Which means that over time, this job can be done without humans. This is great because mapping and registering coral reefs is key for preservation. There is no time to waste.
Cover image: NASA.
29/05/2020
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