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INTERACTIVE PLANT IDENTIFICATION
Author(s) -
Wilson J. Bastow,
Partridge Trevor R.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1221032
Subject(s) - identification (biology) , computer science , allowance (engineering) , key (lock) , information retrieval , compiler , database , online database , programming language , engineering , mechanical engineering , botany , computer security , biology
Summary Identification techniques are discussed with particular reference to online keys. These are interactive keys in which a computer program selects successive questions from its database to guide the key‐user through an optimal identification course. Criteria that can be taken into account in selecting the optimum question at each stage include evenness of the split, the number of indeterminate database entries for each question, commonness of the species, and the part of the plant to which questions refer. Allowance can be made for user preferences and mistakes, and for inaccurate database entries. All such information can be accumulated over a number of identification sessions. This enables the program to improve its own performance, and points out sources of difficulty to the compiler of the database.