Frog listening

On 10 November the Australian Museum launched a FrogID app for iPhones.  This is described as being like Shazam for Frogs.  The big picture idea is that you record a frog call and the app identifies it for you.  I have long asked for something like that for birds but it seems to be too hard (mainly because the potential developers seem to insist on getting everything in there at once rather than doing the first few thousand calls and building up).

Whatever: I downloaded the FrogID app yesterday and tried it last evening on our lawn.  There was the usual ruckus coming from our nearest dam, which probably made the test a bit hard.  The process was pretty easy:

  • hit the 'record button' and let it run for at least 20 seconds;
  • I then hit another button (can't remember what) and a list of 12 possible matches was presented;
  • each possible has a box to check if you are sure and a sound sample to play for confirmation;
  • the samples are excellent as you can listen to them and pick out the matches from the audible calls (there is also a sonogram which assists in the process);
  • Submitting the list of 5 matched species was a bit of a mess as I hadn't registered beforehand - I suggest folk do that;
  • the list and recording will be assessed by a frogologist at the Museum.
Watch this blog for updates.

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