Landspotting: Social gaming to collect vast amounts of data for satellite validation

Information

• Publication Type: WorkshopTalk
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Landspotting - Creating Games for Improving Land Cover
• Date: 23. April 2012, 16:00
• Event: European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2012
• Lecturer: Steffen Fritz
• Location: Austria Center Vienna, Session ESSI2.9, room 7
• Keywords: Social Games with Purpose, Landspotting

Abstract

At present there is no single satellite-derived global land cover product that is accurate enough to provide reliable estimates of forest or cropland area to determine, e.g., how much additional land is available to grow biofuels or to tackle problems of food security. The Landspotting Project aims to improve the quality of this land cover information by vastly increasing the amount of in-situ validation data available for calibration and validation of satellite-derived land cover. The Geo-Wiki (Geo-Wiki.org) system currently allows users to compare three satellite derived land cover products and validate them using Google Earth. However, there is presently no incentive for anyone to provide this data so the amount of validation through Geo-Wiki has been limited. However, recent competitions have proven that incentive driven campaigns can rapidly create large amounts of input. The LandSpotting Project is taking a truly innovative approach through the development of the Landspotting game. The game engages users whilst simultaneously collecting a large amount of in-situ land cover information. The development of the game is informed by the current raft of successful social gaming that is available on the internet and as mobile applications, many of which are geo-spatial in nature. Games that are integrated within a social networking site such as Facebook illustrate the power to reach and continually engage a large number of individuals. The number of active Facebook users is estimated to be greater than 400 million, where 100 million are accessing Facebook from mobile devices. The Landspotting Game has similar game mechanics as the famous strategy game "Civilization" (i.e. build, harvest, research, war, diplomacy, etc.). When a player wishes to make a settlement, they must first classify the land cover over the area they wish to settle. As the game is played on the earth surface with Google Maps, we are able to record and store this land cover/land use classification geographically. Every player can play the game for free (i.e. a massive multiplayer online game). Furthermore, it is a social game on Facebook (e.g. invite friends, send friends messages, purchase gifts, help friends, post messages onto the wall, etc). The game is played in a web browser, therefore it runs everywhere (where Flash is supported) without requiring the user to install anything additional. At the same time, the Geo-Wiki system will be modified to use the acquired in-situ validation information to create new outputs: a hybrid land cover map, which takes the best information from each individual product to create a single integrated version; a database of validation points that will be freely available to the land cover user community; and a facility that allows users to create a specific targeted validation area, which will then be provided to the crowdsourcing community for validation. These outputs will turn Geo-Wiki into a valuable system for earth system scientists.

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BibTeX

@WorkshopTalk{Fritz-2012,
  title =      "Landspotting: Social gaming to collect vast amounts of data
               for satellite validation",
  author =     "Steffen Fritz and Peter Purgathofer and F. Kayali and M.
               Fellner and Michael Wimmer and Tobias Sturn and Josef Schuh
               and G. Triebnig and S. Krause and F. Schindler and M.
               Kollegger and C. Perger and M. D\"{u}rauer and W. Haberl and
               L. See and Ian McCallum",
  year =       "2012",
  abstract =   "At present there is no single satellite-derived global land
               cover product that is accurate enough to provide reliable
               estimates of forest or cropland area to determine, e.g., how
               much additional land is available to grow biofuels or to
               tackle problems of food security. The Landspotting Project
               aims to improve the quality of this land cover information
               by vastly increasing the amount of in-situ validation data
               available for calibration and validation of
               satellite-derived land cover.   The Geo-Wiki (Geo-Wiki.org)
               system currently allows users to compare three satellite
               derived land cover products and validate them using Google
               Earth. However, there is presently no incentive for anyone
               to provide this data so the amount of validation through
               Geo-Wiki has been limited. However, recent competitions have
               proven that incentive driven campaigns can rapidly create
               large amounts of input. The LandSpotting Project is taking a
               truly innovative approach through the development of the
               Landspotting game. The game engages users whilst
               simultaneously collecting a large amount of in-situ land
               cover information. The development of the game is informed
               by the current raft of successful social gaming that is
               available on the internet and as mobile applications, many
               of which are geo-spatial in nature. Games that are
               integrated within a social networking site such as Facebook
               illustrate the power to reach and continually engage a large
               number of individuals. The number of active Facebook users
               is estimated to be greater than 400 million, where 100
               million are accessing Facebook from mobile devices. The
               Landspotting Game has similar game mechanics as the famous
               strategy game "Civilization" (i.e. build, harvest, research,
               war, diplomacy, etc.). When a player wishes to make a
               settlement, they must first classify the land cover over the
               area they wish to settle. As the game is played on the earth
               surface with Google Maps, we are able to record and store
               this land cover/land use classification geographically.
               Every player can play the game for free (i.e. a massive
               multiplayer online game). Furthermore, it is a social game
               on Facebook (e.g. invite friends, send friends messages,
               purchase gifts, help friends, post messages onto the wall,
               etc). The game is played in a web browser, therefore it runs
               everywhere (where Flash is supported) without requiring the
               user to install anything additional. At the same time, the
               Geo-Wiki system will be modified to use the acquired in-situ
               validation information to create new outputs: a hybrid land
               cover map, which takes the best information from each
               individual product to create a single integrated version; a
               database of validation points that will be freely available
               to the land cover user community; and a facility that allows
               users to create a specific targeted validation area, which
               will then be provided to the crowdsourcing community for
               validation. These outputs will turn Geo-Wiki into a valuable
               system for earth system scientists. ",
  month =      apr,
  event =      "European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2012",
  location =   "Austria Center Vienna, Session ESSI2.9, room 7 ",
  keywords =   "Social Games with Purpose, Landspotting",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2012/Fritz-2012/",
}