A service to create integrative citizen science apps where you can report all your environmental and biodiversity observations in one Android or iOS app.
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Description of the service:
The service MOBIS (Mobile Observation Integration Service) service will offer a nice, user-friendly interface to get valuable data from smartphone sensors and images. For example: you can take air-pollution readings using iSPEX (a smartphone add-on to ‘see’ aerosols in the sky’) and a ‘normal’ picture of lichens using the same app. This means that this innovative service will allow citizen scientists to customize their own project by collecting and combining all sorts of useful information from photographs or from low-cost sensors linked to a mobile website or a native app platform, depending on the needs/wishes of the scientific and citizen community.
Development & functioning :
Smartphones have powerful and advanced sensors. Apps can measure all sorts of light, movements and locations. They have a common codebase to interface with standardized backend services and consist of open-source technologies. The mobile platform connects the asynchronous mobile frontend to the scientific backend for direct interaction possible. The platform aims to combine sensor and user data (with great and legal respect forprivacy), doing the reduction on the phone where needed (or backend) and distributing datasets for immediate feedback to the user and further analysis by scientists.
Innovation for citizen observatories:
- The service will be user-friendly with scientific value and user feedback.
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There is nothing similar in the form of a combination of sensor-apps. (e.g. lichens and air quality).
Questions & answers
- Will a user be able to add new citizen observatories and sensors in MOBIS?
An app user can’t. However, a developer can create a new app that includes several environmental sensors and biodiversity citizen science platforms, which end users can use to report data.
- Can I install MOBIS in an existing app?
No, MOBIS is a service aimed for developers who are creating new apps.
- Will I be able to analyse data using MOBIS?
No, but you can create an app to gather the data you are interested in. For example, suppose you’re a researcher interested in studying how pollution affects plant biodiversity. You can develop an app for your users to report data on this and then analyse it outside the app.
- Is the app created using MOBIS able to store data?
Yes, it is. MOBIS and capture all kinds of data (air, water, images of plants) even offline!
- If I am a developer interested in creating a citizen science app, why should I use MOBIS?
You will be able to create a user-friendly app to collect and combine all sorts of environmental sensor readings and biodiversity photos.
- If I am a user interested in creating a citizen science app, why should I create an app using MOBIS?
Citizen scientists will have a single place to perform all citizen science activities instead of using five different apps. This means you can log in once and access a menu to report any environmental or biodiversity data you want. For example, users will be able to register a photo of a lichen, measure the air quality and activate the mobile GPS. Also, there is value added in terms of data security/privacy when using Authenix.
EOSC Marketplace:
Access to MOBIS:
EOSC in practice story
Watch the video
Run4Science initiative & MOBIS
Coordinator:
Related news:
Co-design highlights
Most of the attendees who answered the post-event survey would recommend the co-design session to a friend.
All the attendees who answered the post-event survey found the ‘Miro’ tool very easy to use.
Want to join the co-design community?
Interact and meet other professionals working in your field
You will be able to network with other professionals and projects.
Help boost the functionalities of citizen observatories
For example, improve species identification with artificial intelligence, data integration from various citizen science platforms, etc.
Be an active part of the open science movement
Cos4Cloud's technical services are open source and are intended to be adapted and improved by the community involved.
Learn about citizen science, technology and co-design
Also, we will tell you how we have applied the co-design feedback in developing the service at the end of the project.
