[image] What Image(s) Are Used for "Training" Computer Vision? our computer vision model is not trained to recognize a certain taxon - it is trained to recognize iNaturalist photos of a certain taxon @tiwane - can this training and observation entry be modified somewhat? A real challenge for…

The joyful news is that the main treasure of iNaturalist is the data set itself. The fact that it is growing in size and complexity means that it is becoming a richer and richer resource for exploring the capacity of computer vision to solve problems - not only problems related to the interests of i…

This could also be a good task for new users/non-experts. I bet there are a lot of people who would like to help improve the data but don’t have the expertise to do species ID. If you encouraged people to help with this (maybe on a project page) and included a link to some basic instructions, I woul…

[image] bmvig: This could also be a good task for new users/non-experts. Yes, see this related tutorial about how to add annotations: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/using-identify-to-annotate-observations/1417 It’s listed as one of the ways to help out on iNat too. :) [image] dkaposi: …

[image] bouteloua: Observations that show an egg, larva, then adult, or male, then female, in separate photos fail the criteria of what an observation is To me this is still illogical or poorly thought out. When I go to the provincial park where I will be tomorrow, I will likely see 200+ Yell…

Further discussion about what an observation is (or should be) can be hosted here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-is-an-observation/3367 (though: [image] Let's Talk Annotations I will note, however, that changing something as fundamental as how an observation is defined would likely requ…

[image] tiwane: Let me just preface this by saying I’m not a tech person, so someone like @alex or @loarie would be able to give a better answer, but I think @marykrieger is right in that we need the annotated data in order to train the computer vision model and tell it which photos are of larva…

We could certainly train a computer vision model to predict annotations like life stage rather than species. But remember to train the model, we’ll still need lots of training data so the more life stage annotations you can add the better the model will be.

Scott - this sounds supportive but I’m not sure what the implication is. There are 5.3 million insects records today, around 20% of which have life stage annotations. The percentage for lepidoptera is slightly better at 26% of 2.3 million observations. Is that enough data to start with? If not, …

This was posted on another thread, but the first step of this process would be made so much easier if the CV was able to assign life stages (emphasis added): [image] Bulk Selection of Observations to Add to a Project This is my reason for wanting a bulk add to projects: I have a traditional pro…

@dkaposi has lifted up some interesting ideas around computer vision and annotations particularly. I am hopeful that this discussion has helped allay his concerns about the increasing number of unannotated observations. As long as the raw data (the image) is stored, the classification of that data …

Use computer vision to annotate observations

Feature Requests

Topic		Replies	Views
Adding annotations - does anyone use them? General	91	2178	March 25, 2026
Annotations: Male/female, etc.—How to get more action? General question	75	4104	December 19, 2020
Annotation Sunday General	57	2045	March 24, 2025
Lack of Annotations? General	29	1759	September 25, 2023
Add annotations when creating observations Feature Requests web , mobile-app	26	5803	November 11, 2025

Use computer vision to annotate observations

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