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"Splatometer" Allows Distributed Bug Reports
Snags writes "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the UK has invented a device they call a Splatometer. According to the BBC, the Independent, and others, they are planning to ask people all around the country to mount the device on their cars. Then, after a journey, it gets sealed and sent to a lab where the number and kind of bug splats are analyzed. This sounds like distributed data collection to me, taking advantage of the unused resources (bumper surface area) of a benevolent population, like SETI@Home does with CPU cycles. I wonder if they've considered some form of distributed analysis as well."
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says species like tree sparrows and corn bunting are on the decline.
It wants to know whether the apparent decline in the number of bees, ladybirds, moths and other insects has anything to do with this.
From my perusal of car windshields, front bumpers, and grilles, it has always seemed to me that the vast majority of bugs on cars are smaller than bees, ladybugs, and moths. I also take issue with the contention that this is somehow cool because it is "distributed data collection." Any survey or opinion poll is "distributed data collection;" the only thing that is unique about this is the method used to collect data.
I'll be keen to know how they can identify the different types if bugs that adorn my window/bumper/etc, as they are usually reduced to a thin layer of slime. Maybe the 'splatometer' has a soft landing pad to have the bugs not quite so squished?
"bugzilla", it's these people.
How many people would be tempted to send their sticky bug thing to a friend in another country just to screw around with the data?