= Fossils =

This is a design document for a distributed thinking project.
Don't edit this page unless you're involved in this project.

== Image collection ==

A given rig session will yield
 * A number of cameras with ~1000 images.  Each image will have a timestamp.  File names may not be unique across cameras.
 * A GPS log file with a sequence of timestamped waypoints.

We'll need to develop an '''image collector''' program (python/Linux?).
This will first read in the GPS log file.
Then you'll connect the various cameras, one at a time, to USB,
and it will download their images.
The outputs:

 * A directory of all the images, with unique filenames.
 * An 'image index' file, one line per image.  For each image:
  * time
  * lat/long
  * filename
  * estimated size factor (meters/pixel)

== Loading images on the server ==

We'll develop a script '''load_images''' that takes the above info
and loads it into the Bossa database.
Each run of this script produces a "batch" of jobs
that can be managed as a unit (see below).
Initially the state of the batch is "pending",
meaning that it is not available to volunteers.

== Volunteer levels ==

There will be three levels of participation:
 Beginning:: Identify bones, no classification.  Intended for elementary school kids.
 Intermediate:: Distinguish Primate/Nonprimate, and Tooth/Skull/Other.
 Advanced:: Distinguish ~10 taxa and ~5 bone types.

== Training course ==

We'll need to develop training courses (probably using Bolt)
for each volunteer level.
A given course will contain:

 * several examples (different ages, lighting conditions) of each type of object to be identified, some negatives, and some images that look like positives but are negative.
 * a test consisting of some number of positive and negative examples

== Volunteer experience ==

Each image will initially be shown in a medium-res (1024x768) form.
It will have a control area that remains fixed in the UL corner, even if the image scrolls.
The control area includes:
 * a "Done" button 
 * a "Magnify" or "Shrink" button. This toggles between the medium-res and hi-res (3Kx2K) image.
 * a "Rotate" button that rotates the image 90 deg.

To identify a feature, the user clicks on the image.
This pops up a window in which they select (from menus) that taxa and bone type,
and can type an optional comment.

After every N images (N=1?) the volunteer is shown a feedback page (see below).

== Feedback page ==

This page is intended to give volunteers feedback on their efforts,
and to encourage them to continue.
Possible contents:

 * thumbnails of recent jobs, with links so that they can see how other people annotated the same image.
 * links to message boards
 * "who's online now", with ability to send instant messages
 * this users's message inbox

== Calibration images ==

We may want to use "calibration images", i.e. images for which the correct annotation is known,
for two reasons:

 * to increase the fraction of images that contain something
 * to improve our assessment of volunteer error rates

== Scientist interfaces ==

Scientists will interact through a web-based interface.
The top-level page will show a list of batches,
with their times, names, spatial extent, and status
(Pending, In Progress, Completed).
For a given batch, the scientist can:

 * Change the status of the batch
 * View a map in which the images appear as small rectangles, with color coding showing which have been processed by volunteers, and how many features were found.  Clicking on a rectangle goes to a page showing the instances of the job, allowing the scientist to view and compare the results, to select a "best" answer, and to add their own annotations.
 * View a textual list of images, ordered by decreasing number of features found.