Spiderman, beware of your identity being revealed! 😛
If you’ve ever been to Australia, you’d know that the country cum continent is home to many unique species that are not found in other places of the world. These include kangaroo, koala, platipus and more.
Even Australia’s bug life is more diverse than most in the world and the country is infamous for having A LOT of spiders roaming around, even indoors. Yikes!
Well, if this pandemic ever ended and you’ve got the opportunity to safely travel to Australia and wanted to see these spiders for yourself (but why?!), there’s actually a smart phone app under that could tell you the species of a spider by simply taking a photo of it.
Aptly called ‘Critterpedia’, this application is a collaboration between Australian creators Nic and Murray Scare with the Australia’s National Science Agency (CSIRO). CSIRO is best known as being the folks who named new species of flies based with Marvel characters.
Basically, the app uses machine learning to automatically identify different spider species based on a database of hundreds of thousands of images. The developers actually need the public’s help to capture as many spider photos as possible so that they can have more of a database to work with.
Photos of spiders? Sounds like a job for Peter Parker!
Spider season in Australia
According to Critterpedia’s CEO Nic Scarce,
“By utilizing disruptive, top-end technology, Critterpedia can guide people to gain a deeper understanding of our misunderstood wildlife by providing the tools and experiences they need for a great education, the key to positive change.”
Oh by the way, the app will work on snakes too. All and all, this is actually a really good initiative to identify and preserve the wildlife of Australia. As I’m sure Spiderman would agree, #Spiderslivematters.
Also read: Australian Scientists Discover New Fly Species, Names Them Deadpool, Thor & More!
