New mobile phone software will help epidemiologists and ecologists working in the field to analyse their data remotely and map findings across the world, without having to return to the lab, according to research published in PLoS ONE. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London, say the software will also enable members of the public to act as ‘citizen scientists’ and help collect data for community projects.

The researchers have developed an application for ’smartphones’ that allows a scientist or member of the public to collect and record data, photos and videos – for example to document the presence of an animal or plant species – and then send this information to a central web-based database. The website records the user’s location, using the phone’s GPS system, and it can then display all of the data collected on this topic across the world, using Google Maps.

Users can also use their smartphones to request and view all the maps and analyses available. The new technology, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust, means that groups of researchers should be able to quickly and easily build up and share maps of, for example, the distribution of an endangered species or cases of a disease, and analyse patterns that emerge. The Imperial team is currently using the software, known as EpiCollect, as a tool in their studies of the epidemiology of bacterial and fungal infectious diseases.

Read more . . .

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mobile app sees science go global (innovationtoronto.com)

Related posts:

1. Mobile app sees science go global
2. Tools Let Public Contribute To Massive Interactive Online Biodiversity Encyclopedia
3. Invisibility Cloak And Ultra-powerful Microscopes: New Research Field Promises Radical Advances In Optical Technologies
4. Indian girl’s innovation: Charge phone through its radiation
5. Technology On Way To Forecasting Humanity’s Needs

Tags: central web, citizen scientists, community projects, endangered species, epidemiology, Google, google maps, gps system, imperial college london, infectious diseases, mobile phone software, new technology, plos one, smartphones, web based database, wellcome trust

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 11:38 am and is filed under Communications, Consider This, Cutting-edge Research, Innovation, Science Digest / Science Daily, Shape of Things to Come?, disruptive innovation, environment, learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.