As far as I can tell, computer vision does not consider subspecies. The recent update to CV has been very good for cicadas in the sense that it is identifying the correct species the vast majority of the time for specimens that are identifiable. The problem is many subspecies exist and I think it’…

I don’t know how viable this would be. Subspecies for many taxa are purely based on range, and for others, the morphological differences are very slim. Your request seems to be just ‘include ssp in the CV,’ but we need to consider the possible issues that could come up.

For those subspecies you speak of, I would think a proper CV model would simply identify at species.

I think subspecies based purely on range would pose an issue for the CV since (based on my understanding), it’s really trained on the visual data. The geographic info comes into play when suggesting “Seen Nearby” or “pruning” the rankings. So for subspecies ided exclusively on range (not visual diff…

[image] cthawley: This could also be an issue if there are only some subspecies of a given species with enough observations IDed to subspecies level to be in the CV model. If not all subspecies are represented, CV might end up suggesting only the set of more observed subspecies that are in the m…

I think it would be wonderful is ssp. and var. were added to the CV model. Lack of focus on ssp. and var. seems to be one of iNat’s greatest weaknesses. At least in plants, many ssp. and var. are very easy to ID visually, though it is possible most of those should be recognized as distinct species r…

[image] zdanko: we need to consider the possible issues that could come up. Those issues aren’t really any different than you have with species in many cases. Is there any potential difference that you could point to that demonstrates an issue present with IDing subspecies that does not exist…

[image] murphyslab: Is there any potential difference that you could point to that demonstrates an issue present with IDing subspecies that does not exist in parallel at a species level? One thing to consider as a difference between IDing subspecies vs species is that subspecies generally are…

i would hope subspecies-by-range would never be included in the AI. I won’t agree with subspecies IDs by range at all, because i don’t think it’s good practice to ID that way.

There’re still many subspecies that are very easily divided, especially with how iNat follows taxonomy with many ssp being actually distinct species. You can divide Motacilla alba personata from alba group easily, cv doesn’t have to know/show each subspecies, but those that can be supported both by …

Computer vision and subspecies

General

zdanko July 22, 2021, 6:52pm 5

But then it would have to be trained specifically per species to know which should and which shouldn’t be identified to subspecies.

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Computer vision and subspecies

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