ALL ABOUT BIRDS: AN ANDROID APPLICATION THAT FLIES HIGH Are sparrows really getting fewer in number? Does radiation from mobile phone towers affect birds? Where do migratory birds fly in from, where do they go, and when?A team of students and faculty members from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore, have developed a mobile phone application based on crowdsourcing to gather data that could answer these questions.Harish Bhat, Research Scientist, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, told The Hindu that the bird monitoring freeware, called “Pakshi”, is designed for any bird enthusiast. He said, “Anyone who knows the difference between a crow and a pigeon can add to the data, all at the tap of a key.” The status of many birds in the State, the country and the world, are not known. The application will help in gathering data, collected from various sources, about them. Right now, the application has data about around 186 species of birds from Karnataka, but it will be expanded to 1,300 species covering the whole of India. A person has to download the application to their Android phone, go birding, match the bird spotted to the pre-existing photo, add the number of birds spotted, and send the information, which is updated on the server. The application records the date, time and location (through GPS) of the spot where the person recorded the data, the weather condition, and mobile tower radiation of that place. He said the idea of developing the application came up as he and H. S. Jamadagni, Professor, Department for Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE) of IISc., wondered how to find whether it is true that sparrows have declined in number, and about the routes and patterns followed by migratory birds. Mr. Jamadagni developed the technical part of the application.Mr. Bhat said Forest Department officials in B.R. Hills have used the application. “Now, we want to launch it in the Deccan plateau and in the coastal group,” he said. Birders in coastal areas can update data on pelagic and oceanic birds.Shivashankar, an Udupi-based birder, said the application will be introduced to birders of the coastal area in Karkala, Udupi district, at the end of July. But how precise is a conclusion drawn from data collected through crowdsourcing? What if a newbie birder mistakes a bird for some other bird and updates the information?Rohit S. Rao, a Mangalore-based birder, who just got a glimpse of the application from his friend, said there could be errors but not by a wide margin. Only those who are really interested in birding will take the trouble to participate in birding and add to the data.For details of “Pakshi”, check: https://play.google/store/apps/details?id=com.pakshi.pakshiapp.[source:TheHindu]
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:32:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015