
Rockd: Learn, explore, and document your geologic world - hownottowrite
https://rockd.org/
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hownottowrite
Background: "UW-Madison geoscientist offers free geologic exploration app"
[http://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-geoscientist-offers-free-
geo...](http://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-geoscientist-offers-free-geologic-
exploration-app/)

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uhhyeahdude
This is a really great idea! It happens to be really useful to me right now,
as I'm in Hawaii (big island, Hawai'i) and study things very much related to
rock composition and age.

There is so much history one can observe driving almost anywhere on this
island, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is nearby for even more fun with
"rock" stuff. Kilauea is burbling new material all the time, too.

I've been thinking about doing something similar for classifying flora via
morphological analysis (lots of yes/no questions after selecting a best guess
of one of the larger groups, eventually getting closer w/ pictures, narrowing
to very specific detail question about patterns, arrangement, inflorescence,
etc...

So far I've just been polling people who study plants or are involved in
conservation/reforestation. I haven't thought of a satisfactory way to do
tentative ID's that are "close enough". Close enough to go home, grab a
textbook, and confirm as well as possible. That can be difficult here, even
for experienced professionals; there are so many plants that are not well-
known, so many rare species, so many "misbehaving" plants, and so on.

Ideally, it would have the ability to analyze samples via the camera by
comparing to a corpus of known good species pictures. I don't have a clue how
to do that, though. Train algorithms, machine learning, etc, etc... If I was
sure it would work, I d do it. Otherwise it's much easier to just ask a couple
of knowledgeable people.

I think it needs a collaborative effort, something kind of similar to what I
see on Rockd... It would be fantastic if people could post, share, and consult
with each other.

I will give this app a test drive on my next field work day. Thanks for
posting!

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desdiv
Not sure if this is intentional or not, but on your web interface I can't
select any of the text. I wanted to Google the geological terms but couldn't
without typing it out manually.

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kapilkaisare
A couple of observations:

1\. If I try to sign in using Facebook, typing in my username, does not result
in anything appearing in the text box. When I try to enter it in anyway,
assuming it is being entered but not displayed, it shows me that the username
has not been entered.

2\. The opening screen tells me to swipe left, but it shows me the next screen
only when I swipe right.

I am using a Huawei Honor 5x.

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notoriousjpg
Would be great to use this with in flight wifi and see what kinds of geology
you're flying over. Cool :)

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nerdponx
I actually had an app a while ago with this feature, specifically designed for
flying or driving long distances. It let you save maps in advance for offline
use and had Wikipedia links built in. I wish I remembered the name!

Edit: it's Flyover Country.
[https://appsto.re/us/bDjl_.i](https://appsto.re/us/bDjl_.i)

