Leaf++
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Digitization of Biological Data
Presentation Title:
- Leaf++
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Natural interfaces and cross-medial technologies allow for the creation of new publishing paradigms in which the term “book” can be disarticulated and rearranged into unexpected forms, fostering new ways of interacting with data and information.
Leaf++ is the product of a research project that goes in this direction in which a prototypal interactive system involving computer vision, gestural interfaces, augmented reality technologies and cross medial systems to create a novel tool to experience botanical information about plants and their leaves.
In Leaf++ an interactive surface and a mobile application can be used to access information of a leaf. By placing the leaf on the interactive surface or by taking a picture of it using the mobile application, a computer vision system is able to recognize it (if it already has been added to a database) and to show available information sources including scientific classification and information, habitat information, world diffusion data, seasonality, curiosities, videos, images and stories regarding the leaf and the plant to which it belongs. Researchers and other forms of users are also allowed to add information to the system: by simply uploading texts, images, videos and geographical locations, they can contribute to the set of information available for the recognized leaf.
The overall interactive system comes out as a really significant experience, employable according to various usage scenarios that go from scientific research to education, to mobile and museum-based entertainment, which not only suggest possible effective uses for these ubiquitous, cross-medial technologies, but also enacts information access and knowledge sharing practices which are outstanding from the point of view of their usability, and of the cognitive approaches fostered by such direct, “augmented” methodologies.
Leaf++ is a cross-medial, augmented reality, multi-author, emergent, evolving and disseminated publication.
