AR nature tracking app gamifies learning

The Seek app provides immediate identification and encourages users to take photos to earn badges and unlock additional features

Spotted: The Seek app makes learning about the surrounding environment fun and easy. Users open the app and zoom in on a plant, animal or feature. In-app augmented reality technology provides identification before the photo is even taken.  With guidance on useful angles and details provided by the app, each high-quality photo earns users a badge and the ability to unlock additional features.

Designed to encourage the curiosity of children, the app was created with families in mind. No location or other personal data is required to use the app, and all images contribute to a worldwide biodiversity database. Created by iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and the Our Planet series on Netflix provided support for the most recent version of the app. Available for both Android and iOS, seven languages are currently available. They are Chinese, Hindi, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and English.

Monthly challenges keep users interested, and social media posts can use the #SeenOnSeek hashtag to join the conservation conversation. By recording current environments, projects and organisations working to protect the future of the natural world have broad datasets with which to track changes.

Whether it’s transforming carbon dioxide into sustainable foodstuffs or using ultra-sensitive, miniature sensors to track hive health, Springwise has spotted numerous innovations dedicated to preserving and improving the natural world.

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