Nature Tourism Enhanced by New Technologies

If you think that all applications are created by a group of young students or recent graduates working together in a room behind their laptops, you should know that this is not always the case. Researchers and botanists from three major scientific institutions in the United States, Columbia University in New York, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian National Museum in Washington, D.C., came together to design and complete the Leaf Snap application by compiling millions of photos and data. This application, which is available for free to users of smartphones and tablets, can identify photos taken of the leaves of various plants and provide the scientific name of the plant, where it grows, its growing season, and more. This application utilizes facial recognition technology (the same technology that can identify you and your friends' photos on Facebook and Google Plus). Florafolio also performs the same function as Leaf Snap, with the difference that it specializes in North American native plants. One of the highly addictive hobbies of nature lovers is identifying wild birds in various regions. Over the years, thick books have been written by professional biologists and amateur birdwatchers to identify bird locations, migration seasons, mating, types of calls, and their various meanings. But now, there is no need to carry these heavy books in your backpack when going birdwatching. You just need to download the iBird application (though this app is not free and offers various collections at different prices). This program can tell you the native bird species in your area based on your geographic location and provide other scientific information about them. This application was also developed by the famous Cornell University in New York. The Butterfly Collection provides similar information about various butterflies, although its collection is not as rich as iBird's. In identifying plants as well as animals and wild birds in any region, the work of amateurs is very important. Biologists and environmental experts cannot always be present in all locations, so a large portion of the biological data for any region depends on reports from amateurs. These citizen experts, who have always quietly served the science of biology and the environment without having their names mentioned anywhere, now have simpler ways to share their observations in real-time. If you download the WildOb Observer application (for free), you can report all your natural observations, from wildflowers you see in your neighbor's yard to a bird you spotted while hiking, with a photo or a sound recording. The success of applications like these and the increasing size of their databases depend on how much data, photos, sounds, and descriptions nature-loving amateurs report. Now, imagine you have traveled to another city or are even in your own city and are unaware of the natural areas around you (like forests and parks). Your phone's GPS may give you some addresses of these parks, but the Naturefind application specializes in identifying these locations. If there are any events happening in these parks or natural centers, it will inform you about them. This application is useful for both urban parks and for finding natural centers outside the city. Lastly, if you have found a good place to camp and are looking up at the sky at night, awed by the vastness of the galaxy, you might wish you knew the names of those stars! Don't worry. If you have installed the Star Walk application, just point it at the sky, turn on your phone's camera, and after a few moments of scanning, the names and details of those stars and planets will appear on your phone screen. Applications like these can be very effective for children and in engaging them with natural sciences.