[Taxacom] Is it possible to create easy-to-use, accurate and rapid keys for species identifiation?

Jim Croft jim.croft at gmail.com
Mon Aug 31 20:41:27 CDT 2009 

and on a wireless handheld device the other side of the globe with the
click of a button I learn there are only two species on Chatham Island
and they both look like brown curly things.

jim

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Stephen Thorpe<s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> Here is a rather nice locally produced Lucid key which uses distribution as a key character (nicely illustrated too):
>
> http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biocons/mollusc/Allodiscus_key/Allodiscus_key.html
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Jim Croft [jim.croft at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, 1 September 2009 12:35 p.m.
> To: Robin Leech
> Cc: Stephen Thorpe; Dean Pentcheff; Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu; DELTA-L
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Is it possible to create easy-to-use, accurate and       rapid keys for species identifiation?
>
> Robin, Dean, Stephen and all
>
> I went through this patent spec as well and I was hard pressed to find
> justifying innovation.  The claim was very poorly presented in that it
> was a rambling essay mixing historical background (prior art) and a
> particular implementation of existing technologies.
>
> In fact, there is so much prior art and existing practice claimed as
> part of the application I am surprised it got up at all.
>
> DELTA and Lucid (and others) have been using spatial occurrence for
> decades to subset taxa, images and diagrams are routinely used to
> filter remaining taxa and numerous online keys have used in various
> internet applications, including portable devices with 3G modems, etc.
>  Handheld GPS-enabled devices are routinely used to insert and
> transmit geolocation in biodiversity documentation and analysis.  The
> layered architecture described does not seem to be fundamentally
> different to what already takes place, and the client-server backend
> database model is commonplace in this arena. Pattern recognition is
> nothing new, although it still has a long way to go to be ubiquitously
> useful in taxonomy.  Uploading images to be managed on the server is
> widespread these days.
>
> Having said that, the NatureGate website really is very elegant
> visually, and some of the photography really is magnificent.  But from
> what I could see, there is just not all that much (if anything) that
> is new.
>
> jim
>
> On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 9:49 AM, Robin Leech<releech at telus.net> wrote:
>> Nothing new to having geographical locations in a key.
>> Couplet 1 reads:
>> 1a.  California north to southern Oregon........................2
>> 1b.  British Columbia south to northern Washington......4
>>
>> Usually, however, for spiders, there may be anatomical features given first,
>> then
>> the geographic distribution is given for back up or confirmation.
>>
>> I believe that if someone made a key to the pigeon family, that the dodo
>> would have had an exclusive geographic location.
>>
>> Robin
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Stephen Thorpe" <s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz>
>> To: "Dean Pentcheff" <pentcheff at gmail.com>; <Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>> Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 5:34 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Is it possible to create easy-to-use, accurate and
>> rapid keys for species identifiation?
>>
>>
>> I'm darn sure that keys have been using geographical location for as long as
>> there have been keys! I doub't if anyone even thought to patent the idea!
>> But then, nobody has probably thought to patent the wheel either. Bye for
>> now (I'm just off down to the local patent office!!!) ...
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>> [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Dean Pentcheff
>> [pentcheff at gmail.com]
>> Sent: Tuesday, 1 September 2009 11:23 a.m.
>> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Is it possible to create easy-to-use,    accurate and
>> rapid keys for species identifiation?
>>
>> I am fascinated by this posting.
>>
>> The claim appears to be that using geographic location to aid
>> identification in an interactive key (if used on a mobile station) is
>> now patented.
>>
>> Does anyone know what the implications of this claim are? I don't know
>> enough about the EU intellectual property regime to even begin to
>> evaluate what this means.
>>
>> If, in fact, EU patent regimes consider using an organism's range to
>> help identify a specimen as sufficiently non-obvious that the idea
>> deserves patent protection, I'm appalled.
>>
>> -Dean
>> --
>> Dean Pentcheff
>> pentcheff at gmail.com
>>
>> 2009/8/31 Mauri Åhlberg <mauri.ahlberg at helsinki.fi>:
>>> I read with great interest Steve Marshall's and John Grehan's messages
>>> about difficulties of using keys, even interactive keys.
>>>
>>> NatureGate Online service for species identification is designed to be
>>> easy-to-use, accurate and rapid. It is based on patented system and
>>> method for object idenfification (Lehmuskallio, E. & Lehmuskallio, J.
>>> 2008, http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?IA=FI2008000039 )
>>>
>>> NatureGate is looking for partners to expand this system to new
>>> organisn species and new regions: http://www.naturegate.net
>>>
>>> * IUCN: http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/cec/?2614/
>>>  * The Finnish Institute of Environment (SYKE), and Ministry of
>>> Environment:
>>>       http://www.ymparisto.fi/default.asp?contentid=298951&lan=EN
>>> * Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG):
>>>
>>> http://www.tdwg.org/biodiv-projects/projects-database/view-project/1550/
>>>
>>> http://www.tdwg.org/biodiv-networks/networks-database/view-project/56/
>>> •       Poster at the e-Biosphere 09 conference, June 1 – 3, 2009, London,
>>> UK. In the category: New Tools, Services and Standards for Data
>>> Management and Access, http://www.e-biosphere09.org/posters/D1.pdf
>>>
>>> Mauri Åhlberg (in English: Ahlberg) FLS
>>> Professor of Biology and Sustainability Education
>>> http://www.helsinki.fi/people/mauri.ahlberg
>>> http://www.naturegate.net
>>>
>>>
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>
> --
> _________________
> Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
> http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
> ... in pursuit of the meaning of leaf ...
> ... 'All is leaf' ('Alles ist Blatt') - Goethe



-- 
_________________
Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
... in pursuit of the meaning of leaf ...
... 'All is leaf' ('Alles ist Blatt') - Goethe

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