Spring awaits...
... and while preparing for the next season we look back to last year. A first open beta version of the #VarroaCounter was introduced in April 2018.
Some of you already gave a first feedback and contacted us. Thank you for liking the user interface & the usage process. Thank you also for the great encouragement to keep the development process up.
Our development strategy originally relied on a second project proposal for funding within the AWS creative industry program.
With an expected success rate of less than 16% chances were very limited, but the will to create something useful for sustainability, to actively contribute to one of - in my opinion - century problems, was not spread throughout all jury members.
This truly was a backlash, because it set our budget for marketing, R&D and international networking to almost zero! *omg!*
This might sound like a reason, but is definitely no obstacle to not continue with the development of the VarroaCounter.
Some of you might think: "Why creative industry, are there not any more suitable support programs?" You are right, there might be. But on the other side we are very glad to spend our time for direct results on the product, with less red tape and management overhead.
Last year we
made some important connections to international bee experts, universities and companies.
had some interesting insights on how the Japanese bee keeper scene is structured.
had interesting discussions with local beekeepers.
were recognized as a company that works on "game changing" technologies.
This year we
have to stimulate the recognition of the VarroaCounter,
grow & strengthen our network of international experts,
encourage users to give feedback for quality assurance (QA),
have to provide translated videos and texts for training,
find further supporters, which place their logo at www.varroacounter.com
intensivate the search for strategic and scientific cooperations.
We ask for your patience and support! Some planned updates and works are delayed because the TopLab had to focus on other projects for cross-financing the development of the Varroa Counter.
In fact it is up to you - the Varroa Counter users - to actively help with quality improvements. This is easy and just one click when estimation results are presented (QA mail)!
We are doing high skill AI app development, and every predictor is limited by the low amounts of available data for training. The more real world images we get the better will be our #NeuralNetwork #DeepLearing #AI solution in general!
Please have a look at your drafts folder in your email client. Maybe you have forgotten to actually send the email.
Currently we are gathering real world data to generate an extended data set for retraining the neural network and recalibrate the integrated filters. But we need your help by collecting and sending enough photograhs!
Opposite to industrial computer vision applications - where lightning and camera properties stay within close quality boundries - the app operates under circumstances with wider value ranges and camera models.
Within the active camera preview you can switch between 3 brightness levels by simply tapping on the preview.
Please notice the checkbox when estimation results are presented on the screen. By checking the "QA mail" box before proceeding, an email is generated with your email client. It includes the last picture taken as attachment, some information text and different parameters of the image itself and the device the picture was taken with. You have also the opportunity so enter your manual count.
With this function for quality assurance we want to invite you to support us improving the knowledge and technology behind the purpose of estimating and predicting mite life stock in bee hives.
Our next goal is to publish tran
slations of the tutorial video the app currently points to on youtube.
In the meantime there is also an english version:
I hope that we can finish a french version next time. At least we will publish a pdf with the translation asap.
Thank you also for talking about the app idea with others! Thank you for supporting this important approach with your QA contributions! :)
btw: I think the number of new newsletter subscribers has doubled in the last months. :)