The Seek app is deemed to be "like Pokémon Go [but] for nature." The mobile application is released by iNaturalist and the WWF who hope to "track the health of the planet" through a crowdsourced biodiversity database.
The Seek app is marketed to kids who can satisfy their curiosity for plants, flowers, and wildlife in their area. The augmented relaity-powered mobile application uses live image recognition to scan and identify the object. Then, the Seek app prompts the user to take a picture, which "unlocks further features of the app." Finally, the application keeps kids engaged by offering badges that are given out for completing an in-app challenge.
In addition to allowing iNaturalist and the WWF to keep tabs on the health and biodiversity of the planet, the Seek app also builds on children's growing awareness of the issue of climate change.
Species-Identifying Apps
The Seek App by iNaturalist & the WWF Builds a Biodiversity Database
Trend Themes
1. Biodiversity Tracking Apps - Innovative species-identifying apps that track and monitor reported wildlife and habitat locations through augmented reality live image recognition.
2. Crowdsourced Ecology Databases - Developing digital platforms that acquire ecological data from users to generate detailed research on biodiversity, climate change and species trending using augmented reality technology.
3. Gamification of Wildlife Education - Developing mobile app-based education games and augmented reality learning systems that encourage young users to learn about nature and raising awareness of climate change through unlocking badge achievements.
Industry Implications
1. Education - Developing digital education solutions for schools that incorporate game-based learning, augmented reality and crowdsourcing data integration in the study of nature, ecology and climate change.
2. Environmental Conservation - Building digital systems that use live image recognition technology to capture wildlife behaviours and supporting evidence to sustain research on climate change in order to inform environment conservation policies.
3. App Development - Creating creative mobile app-based solutions that incorporate cutting-edge technology, crowd-sourced data, augmented reality image recognition systems, to deliver engaging and user-friendly interfaces that encourage participation in wildlife and environmental conservation.