‘EVE Online’ crowdsourced science data will soon be publicly available

In March 2016, space MMO EVE Online added the Project Discovery minigame which let players classify proteins in their downtime to help researchers. After collecting data for over two years, the project's team recently uploaded it to the publicly-available Human Protein Atlas database for scientists to use all over the world.

Players participating in Project Discovery matched images of proteins from a separate database of 13 million human cells. EVE Online studio CCP Games offered in-game rewards to incentivize gamers to take part. Players worked alongside an AI to identify images for a team of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Massive Multiplayer Online Science. Players took direction in-game from Emma Lundberg, a KTH researcher who leads the Cell Atlas group under the Human Protein Atlas; She made her way into EVE Online as the NPC, Professor Lundberg.

Other games have crowdsourced help for science projects, like the 2016 puzzle game Foldit, whose 450-plus players managed to beat a research team to a scientific discovery. But harnessing EVE Online's playerbase accelerated science by sheer scale: Over 300,000 'citizen scientist' players helped out, generating over 33 million image classifications.

This is promising for research, even considering the rise in using artificial intelligence to rapidly process photos. In a comparison, the Loc-CAT AI beat players in classifying common proteins, but aggregated player data better identified rare classes and annotated new patterns, according to a press release.

"I believe that the integration of scientific tasks into established computer games will be a commonly used approach in the future to harness the brain processing power of humans, and that intricate designs of citizen science games feeding directly into machine learning models has the power to rapidly leverage the output of large-scale science efforts," Lundberg said in the press release. "We are grateful to all the citizen scientists who participated in this project, and for the discoveries they made. o7"

Via: Gamasutra

Source: Gamasutra (press release)



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2OYpwU8
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more