Instructions: Phone Help for documenting invasive plants!
Use your mobile phone to send images and text to help us locate and combat invasive species in your area!
- Individuals with GPS-enabled mobile phones can easily contribute to this effort by taking geo-tagged observations and photos to alert us of the spread of habitat-destroying plants. See instructions below.
Download the G1 Android and iPhone apps!
- Non GPS-enabled phones are also useful and geolocation can be establshed through our website. Send us a picture message (MMS) or text message (SMS) to mobile@whatinvasive.com. See instructions at bottom.
Download the G1 Android and iPhone apps!
Android G1 phone Application
If you have an Android phone, go to http://www.whatsinvasive.com/dl/wi.apk and download the What's Invasive! application. After installation, you will then be prompted for a username and password and registration can be done either on the phone or on the website.
After logging in, you will be prompted to turn on automatic upload of your observations.
Your phone will automatically download a list of parks from our database and then automatically select the park that is the closest to your current location. Your current location is displayed on the main page. If you wish to disable this feature and manually select a park from the list, then go to MENU > Settings and select "Show parks." Automatic location sensing will now be turned off, but can be turned on again from the same page.
A list of the top invasive species for any park is available with photos and descriptions. From the main page on the phone, select "List of Weeds" and then select any weed for more information.
To record an observation of an invasive species, select "Map a Weed!" from the main screen. The list of top invasive weeds is then available, along with the option of making an "Other" species observation. At the top of the screen you should select the quantity of weeds of the particular species that you are documenting (one, a few, a lot) and whether you want to include a photo of your observation. We recommend that you include at least one photo of each new species you are documenting, as verification.
Observations are kept in a queue for 1 minute after they have been captured to allow you to delete them before they are sent to our database and to the publicly available photo sharing website Flickr. After an observation has been sent from your phone, you may still edit or delete the entry through our website on the "My Stats and Photos" page.
The "My Results" button on the main screen will take you to your personal statistics page or, after choosing MENU > Global, you may see the statistics for all observations and participants contributing invasive species information for the current park.
iPhone Application
If you have an iPhone, go to the Apple iPhone app store and search for SM Invasives or go here if you have iTunes already installed. After installation, you will then be prompted for a username and password and registration can be done either on the phone or on the website.
After logging in, you will be taken to a main menu. It will have three options: Camera, Photo Album, and My What's Invasive.
You will be prompted to turn on automatic upload of your observations. Enable uploads by clicking on "My What's Invasive" and going to the Status tab and turning on "Auto Upload".
You can explore the other screens in "My What's Invasive" as well such as About, Queue, Feedback, and Status. Once you are finished looking at items on the "My What's Invasive" screen, press "Done" located on the top right.
To take a sample, you can either use the Camera or go to your Photo Album - click on the appropriate icon. Once you have taken a photo or selected one from your album, you will be asked to choose a tag [one of the plant tags for Santa Monica].
If geotagging is enabled and there is a valid localization, then you simply repeat this proces. If geotagging is not enabled or valid localization is not available, then you will be asked to put in information about where you are located, like a street address or zipcode.
You can view your submissions that are currently in your "queue" to be uploaded by going to "My Whats Invasive" and then clicking on the "Queue" tab.
You can view other options, such being able to manually upload, go into camera mode immediately, etc., by going to "My What's Invasive" and then clicking on "Status".
Any non-GPS phone with MMS or Phone-based Email
To use any phone with picture messaging (MMS) or SMS to email to make an observation, you need to make an association between your telephone email return address and your What's Invasive! account. Log on to What's Invasive!, then go to Account > Email Phone Associations.
- If your phone has GPS, then enable geo-locating photos (if available)
- Compose an MMS message.
- Optionally attach a picture of the invasive plant species.
- Write the plant name as the subject line
- Then send the message to: mobile@whatinvasive.com
You can edit your entry on our website My Stats & Photos page and include a geolocation or add a photo. More information about this process is avaiable in the Instructions: My Stats & Photos help page.
