SBIR Phase II: Building a Global Community to Crowdsource-Clean the Planet

这个SBIR第二期项目的重点是垃圾--世界上最普遍和最有毒的问题之一。对许多人来说，这是肮脏、令人厌恶的，是其他人的问题需要解决。不幸的是，我们都承受着后果，因为垃圾影响了我们的经济，退化了环境，挫败了社区自豪感，杀死了野生动物，并毒害了食品系统。该项目建立在SBIR第一阶段项目成果的基础上，该项目开发了一种移动技术，使任何人都能够识别、绘制地图和收集世界上的垃圾，同时连接到更广泛的相关品牌、城市和学校社区。该公司已将图像识别和机器学习算法集成到其软件中，以推进垃圾数据和清理活动的众包。这一改进将允许识别垃圾，即使物品处于严重腐烂和腐烂的状态。该项目还旨在继续建立全球垃圾数据库，这是一个将该公司的垃圾分类与其他数据集(包括地点、时间、零售地点和分水岭)整合在一起的技术平台。这些数据为改善市政基础设施、资源配置、品牌包装重新设计以及促进积极行为变化的个人责任提供了巨大的潜力。与国家科学基金会一样，该项目旨在促进科学进步，促进我们国家的健康、繁荣和福祉。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This SBIR Phase II project focuses on litter - one of the world's most pervasive and toxic problems. To many, it's dirty, disgusting, and someone else's problem to solve. Unfortunately, we all suffer the consequences, as litter impacts our economy, degrades the environment, demoralizes community pride, kills wildlife, and poisons the food system. This project builds on the accomplishments of an SBIR Phase I project that developed a mobile technology empowering anyone to identify, map, and collect the world's litter, while simultaneously connecting to a broader community of associated brands, cities, schools. The company has integrated image recognition and machine learning algorithms into its software to advance the crowdsourcing of litter data and cleanup activities. This advancement will allow for the identification of litter even if the item is in a deep state of decay and decomposition. This project also aims to continue building the Global Database of Litter, a technology platform that integrates the company's litter taxonomic classification with other data sets including location, time, retail locations, and the watershed. This data provides great potential to improve municipal infrastructure, resource allocation, brand packaging redesign, and individual responsibility that promotes positive behavioral change. Like the National Science Foundation, this project aims to promote the progress of science and advance our national health, prosperity, and welfare.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.