Multi-Purpose Exploration of Uncertain Data for the Video Monitoring of Ecosystems

Abstract

Computer Vision is a promising technique for in-situ monitoring of ecosystems. It is non-intrusive and costeffective compared to sending human observers. Automatic animal detection and species recognition support the study of population dynamics and species composition, i.e., the evolution of species populations' size. Fixed cameras support continuous data collection, which can serve a variety of ecology research. Prior to in-depth data analysis, ecologists need to familiarise with the dataset, and with the limitations of video technologies. We propose an interactive visualization system for exploring the video data. It addresses user needs for i) eliciting information of interest for specific studies; and ii) identifying the uncertainty factors inherent to video technologies. We discuss generalisable interaction principes and illustrate them with screenshots of an online prototype.