Sea Delight Photo App Challenge Takes First Place At GDST Tech Event
First Place: IT experts Laurice Dagum, Vinay Balaji, Guatam Dadhich, Tarun Sharma and Challenge Author, Stephen Fisher from Sea Delight
Bangkok, Thailand Feb 10 to 12, 2019. The organizers of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) had a great idea; Invite industry partners and dialogue team members to formulate Information Technology (IT) Challenges to solve seafood traceability problems, then present the challenges to IT experts worldwide and offer cash awards for the teams who solve them in a “Hackathon”.
Oxford Dictionary:
Hackathon
An event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.
The Challenges presented covered a wide range of traceability issues, including:
- Develop a system to reward small scale fishers with micro finance in exchange for providing traceability data
- Develop a means to integrate GDST based traceability info with the GS1 Global Traceability System
- Develop solutions that enable traceability data to benefit multiple users throughout the complete supply chain
- (From Sea Delight) develop a device application for users with limited language skills that can create fishing trip maps and trip report documents with text and photos
The Sea Delight Challenge was based on an actual Android app already in development by Sea Delight and the Vietnam Tuna Association (VINATUNA). The trial version of the app has already been tested successfully. Designed by Sea Delight Sustainability Director, Stephen Fisher and written by VINATUNA IT Experts Tran Quang Tuan and Huynh Quoc Dat, the app is called the “Crew Observer Photographic Protocol Application” (COPPA).
The app is a simple “point and shoot” system that requires minimal writing or language skills and guides the operator in selecting and identifying the species being photographed. It also marks each image with date, time and GPS location stamps that allow the creation of a Interactive Map of each fishing trip.
The IT Experts who took on the Sea Delight challenge took this simple app concept to unimagined levels. After more than 24 hours of no sleep, lots of coffee and non-stop hacking the experts came up with an app called “Blueprint”.
“Blueprint” App logo developed by the winning Challenge team
Artificial intelligence will allow the app to instantly learn and identify new species
From a facial recognition log-in to simple voice command controls the app will pack a lot of features in a small package. When the challenge teams presented their IT solutions to the GDST panel of industry experts, Blueprint took first place and the $ 5,000 top prize went to the hackers.
When the trial version of COPPA is completed Sea Delight will make it available for free download to anyone in the seafood industry. We will certainly report here when it is available. For those parties interested in developing “Blueprint” into a fully-usable open-access app or joining the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability please contact GDST through their website: https://traceability-dialogue.org/