NeMO-Net Video Game, Developed with Help of BAERI Researcher, Featured by National Geographic

Did you know that existing maps of Mars and the moon are currently more detailed than those of the seafloor on Earth? Ved Chirayath, a professor at University of Miami and a National Geographic Explorer, is leading a group of scientists, including BAERI’s own Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, in remedying that situation. 

The team is using multiple techniques to build a map of the ocean with accuracy down to the centimeter. Perhaps most compellingly, they’ve gamified their work with an iPad-based game called NeMO-Net (Neural Multi-Modal Observation and Training Network). In the game, available to the general public, players identify coral and other aquatic features in images created from technology such as FluidCam and Multispectral Imaging. Players’ efforts are sent to Chirayath’s team for processing, resulting in a map that will spur preservation innovations for threatened organisms such as coral reefs, so vital to Earth’s ecosystem.