SBIR Phase I: High-throughput 3-D Insect Data Capture Enabling Large Scale Specimen Digitization and Machine Species Identification

SBIR 第一阶段：高通量 3D 昆虫数据捕获，实现大规模样本数字化和机器物种识别

• 批准号: 1143119
• 负责人: Jeffrey Sieracki
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: SR2 Group, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2012-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1143119&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; throughput; Insect; Data

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I is directed toward high-throughput roboticimaging and data capture of 3D physical insect specimens with applications to national intelligence andsecurity, vector epidemiology, agriculture, biodiversity research, and museum curation. Natural historymuseums are vast, largely untapped sources of biological data for addressing complex questions rangingfrom tracking terrorists to climate change. Yet ~1 billion U.S. specimens remain in museum drawers andcabinets, their characteristics, associated data, and even their existence hidden. Insects preserved onpins represent a significant proportion, with the ten largest collections housing over 100 million. While thescope of collections is immense, the expertise needed to identify insects of importance is in decline astaxonomists retire and university positions close. For some insect groups, few or no experts remaincapable of identifying species. The proposed technology will radically accelerate the pace of insectspecimen digitization. It will capture critical data from museum specimens and revitalize taxonomy byproviding datasets for computer-automated insect identification efforts. The project demonstrates robotichandling of pinned specimens is feasible, enabling a high-throughput system capable of manipulatingpinned specimens, partitioning the 3D scene, photographing specimens, and extracting databaseinformation with OCR rendering of specimen labels.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project spans myriad applications. Insects vectorimportant diseases of humans, livestock, and crops. Annually, malaria is implicated in a million humandeaths worldwide and aphids and their viruses cost US farmers over one billion dollars. New invasiveinsects regularly arrive on our shores undetected. Insects also have forensics applications, locatingevents in time and place and calculating times of death. Tools to quickly and efficiently identify insectshave immediate application in vector epidemiology, agricultural and environmental monitoring, bordersecurity and port inspection, law enforcement, and intelligence. Spatial-temporal data associated withfield collection of insect specimens are crucial for geolocation forensics, tracking climate change andrange expansion of invasive species, and locating geographic sources of potential biological controlagents for exotic pests. Current technologies and specimen digitization practices take too much time, costtoo much money, and simply cannot image most specimens. Semi-automated systems address onlymicroscope slide- or paper-mounted specimens. Currently no technology exists to even partiallyautomate the digitization of individual pinned insect specimens. Potential customers include insectcollections, museums, agribusinesses, epidemiologists, and agents in homeland security, port inspection,environmental monitoring, and national intelligence. Enormous secondary commercial potential existswith value-added online databases.

这项小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段旨在对3D实体昆虫标本进行高通量机器人成像和数据捕获，应用于国家情报和安全、病媒流行病学、农业、生物多样性研究和博物馆管理。自然历史博物馆是巨大的、基本上未被开发的生物数据来源，用于解决从追踪恐怖分子到气候变化的各种复杂问题。然而，博物馆的抽屉和橱柜里仍有大约10亿件美国标本，它们的特征、相关数据，甚至它们的存在都是隐藏的。昆虫保存的针脚占了相当大的比例，最大的十个收藏品超过1亿件。虽然收藏的范围很广，但随着分类学家的退休和大学职位的关闭，识别重要昆虫所需的专业知识正在减少。对于一些昆虫群体来说，几乎没有专家能够识别物种。这项拟议的技术将从根本上加快昆虫标本数字化的步伐。它将从博物馆标本中捕获关键数据，并通过为计算机自动昆虫识别工作提供数据集来重振分类学。该项目证明了固定样本的机器人处理是可行的，实现了一个高通量系统，能够操作固定样本、分割3D场景、拍摄样本以及通过OCR呈现样本标签来提取数据库信息。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力跨越了无数的应用。昆虫传播人类、牲畜和农作物的重要疾病。每年，全球有100万人死于疟疾，蚜虫及其病毒给美国农民造成了超过10亿美元的损失。新的入侵昆虫经常悄无声息地来到我们的海岸。昆虫也有取证应用，可以在时间和地点定位事件，计算死亡时间。快速有效地识别昆虫的工具可立即应用于病媒流行病学、农业和环境监测、边境安全和港口检查、执法和情报。与Withfield收集的昆虫标本相关的时空数据对于地理定位取证、跟踪气候变化和入侵物种的范围扩展以及定位外来有害生物潜在生防剂的地理来源至关重要。目前的技术和标本数字化做法花费了太多的时间，花费了太多的钱，而且根本无法对大多数标本进行成像。半自动系统处理显微镜载玻片或纸上标本。目前，还没有一种技术可以部分地实现单个固定昆虫标本的数字化。潜在客户包括昆虫收藏、博物馆、农业综合企业、流行病学家以及国土安全、港口检查、环境监测和国家情报机构。增值的在线数据库存在着巨大的二次商业潜力。