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Mobile Apps for Research Data Collection
Dr Simon Price (Research IT Manager)Polly Eccleston (Research IT Facilitator)
UK Butterfly Survey
BatMobile
How it worksLat/Long obtained via phone’s GPS in the field
Normal accuracy between 2 and 8m
51.391709743,-
0.170123657 Photo + Metadata
iRecord Butterflies (Butterfly Conservation)
• 31,000 surveys submitted this year.
• 2x Springwatch 2014 and 1x Autumnwatch 2014
• Data is being used by Butterfly Conservation to monitor butterfly populations year and year.
• A significant public engagement tool for them.
PlantTracker (Environment Agency)
• 10,000 verified records of invasive plants submitted.
• Many projects using the data to tackle invasive non-native species. e.g. Yorkshire wildlife trust and Jersey Council
• Probably the highest quality data set on invasive plants on the NBN Gateway
• Data downloaded at least once per week on average by researchers and others interested in the data
Why it works
For researchers: – Geo-located data– Photo attached (verifiable… most of the time)– Enables previously impractical surveys– Improves public understanding of research
For the public:– Apps themselves are informative– Accessible by anyone (potentially)– Feedback via immediate visibility of contribution
onlinesurveys.ac.uk
9
10
• BOS launched in 2003.
• £1m+ redevelopment from 2011 to 2014.
• New BOS released October 2014.
• Free for UoB researchers.
Who uses BOS?
• Over 85% of UK HEIs
• National "benchmarking" surveys (60+ universities)– Careers in Research Online Survey (CROS)– Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)– Research Leaders survey
• Free for UoB researchers (180+ Bristol accounts)
App development in BOS
• Build data collection apps yourself without a developer.
• Mobile websites (& can package as app).
• Today:• Surveys, web forms, logic and general data collection
• Planned:• Geolocation, maps, access to camera and sensors
BatMobile
BatMobile project
• SoundHound, Shazam etc. enable people to identify songs they hear, using a mobile app.
• BatMobile applies the same principle to identify species of bats from their ultrasonic calls.
• Challenges:– realtime on a mobile– online vs. offline analysis– ultrasound => need a special microphone
