Izoo mobile: mobile application for mobile assisted Malaysia fauna database Izoo

Abstract

The availability of smart phone provides a new opportunity in adopting the mobile technologies in biodiversity conservation. The compact communication hardware thats enables mobility, data connectivity and storage, image and video capture and georeferencing all on one platform is providing novel applications in the field of medicine, policing and disaster mitigation. In this study we implemented the use of an Android mobile application into a faunal biodiversity database. The aim of the study is to determine the process framework, identify the requirements, design and build an application that would facilitate the reporting process of occurrences into the web database in-situ and real time. Using iZOO (http://biodiversity.fbb.utm.my/izoo/), a FRIM faunal database that hosts hundreds of primary faunal data in Malaysia, we designed and deployed a prototype mobile app called iZOO mobile. The application allows complete digitisation of present conventional method of writing on paper during the data collection process and immediate upload into database using data connectivity upon availability. This prevents mistakes caused by human error, data loss and data disorganization. The application were tested during several fieldtrips in Belum-Temenggor and Lenggor. The creation of this mobile application would assist the field researchers in collecting data efficiently and accurately in the future