Collaborative Research: ImageQuest: Citizens Advancing Biology with Calibrated Imaging and Validated Analysis

华盛顿大学、亚利桑那大学、加州大学圣地亚哥分校和佛蒙特州大学获得合作赠款，以开发工具，支持公民科学家与更广泛的生物成像项目更深入地融合。我们的具体目标是开发工具(1)使拥有智能手机的志愿者更容易捕获支持定量数据测量的校准图像，(2)通过更好的界面和正式方法来验证并根据许多回复创建共识估计，促进志愿者对图像分析任务的贡献，以及(3)通过结合美学、社交网络和可视化工具的在线环境，在虚拟社区中培养长期动机和参与度。这些工具最初将侧重于问题领域，包括监测城市重新植树造林的努力以及在许多不同尺度上分析3D生物和神经成像数据。它将生产一套智能手机和网络应用程序，供需要校准图像捕获和分析的更广泛的生物研究社区使用，并将创建一个试验性门户网站，让志愿者和科学家组成的虚拟社区合作解决成像问题。ImageQuest项目将使志愿者和科学家更容易参与更广泛的生物成像研究。提供增强志愿者捕捉和分析图像能力的工具，减轻了生物学家试图开发公民科学方法的技术负担。使这些工具变得更智能和更具互动性鼓励志愿者为新的研究问题做出有意义的贡献，围绕志愿者和科学家建立一个虚拟社区有助于招募、激励和保持公众对科学研究的长期参与。

Washington University, the University of Arizona, University of California San Diego, and the University of Vermont are awarded collaborative grants to develop tools that support deeper integration of citizen scientists with a broader range of biological imaging projects. Our specific aims are to develop tools (1) to make it easier for volunteers with smart phones to capture calibrated imagery supporting quantitative data measurements, (2) to facilitate volunteer contributions to image analysis tasks with better interfaces and formal methods to validate and create consensus estimates from many responses, and (3) to foster long-term motivation and engagement within virtual communities through online environments that combine aesthetics, social networking and visualization tools. These tools will have an initial focus on problem domains including monitoring of urban re-forestation efforts and analysis of 3D biological and neurological imaging data at many different scales. It will produce a set of smart phone and web apps that will be available to the broader biological research community that require calibrated image capture and analysis, and will create an experimental web portal to engage virtual communities of volunteers and scientists collaborating to work on imaging problems.The ImageQuest project will make it simpler for volunteers and scientists to engage in a much broader set of biological imaging research. Providing tools which enhance a volunteers ability to capture and analyze images relieves a technical burden on biologists trying to develop citizen science approaches. Making these tools smarter and more interactive encourages volunteers to contribute meaningfully to novel research questions, and building a virtual community around the volunteers and the scientists helps to recruit, motivate and retain long term participation of the public in scientific research.