Tech Crunch: What kind of bird is that?

Professor Serge Belongie’s mobile app using computer vision to identify bird species was recently featured in Tech Crunch. The app is the result of a research partnership with researchers from Caltech and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Is that a bufflehead? A coot? Maybe a loon? Get close enough to take a picture and the Merlin bird identification app will tell you in seconds — sort of like a Shazam for would-be ornithologists.

The photo ID capability has actually been a part of the greater Merlin ecosystem for more than a year, but the Cornell birders behind it just recently added the ability to do it from the mobile app. Take a picture, zoom in and let the database do the work.

Read the full article on Tech Crunch.