Use of "Nothing There"

If we see evidence of something but not the actual animal, we are supposed to mark "Nothing There;" correct? (e.g., branches moving but not the primate in them)
If we can't even distinguish between other non-primate (e.g. a duiker) on the ground and a primate feeding on the ground, are we supposed to mark "Nothing There" or take a guess? There is obviously something there, but you can't even guess what because you can't see it clearly.

Posted May 13, 2015 12:28 AM

by northernlimitptv scientist, moderator

Hi @ Kirsten A. Rohrbach! These are great questions! I'll try to answer them both together:

I'm not sure I understand your 1st question, but if you're asking if you do see something (say, something moving branches) but you can't identify what it is, please annotate the video as at least "other, non-primate." The "Nothing There" button should only be used when there really isn't anything there!

Videos that are repeatedly coded as "Nothing There" are treated different in the algorithm that decides how many times to show each video. So, if there is SOMETHING there, please code it with your best guess 😃 That way, others will continue to see the video and can make their guesses as well 😃

Does that help answer your questions?

Posted May 13, 2015 10:56 AM

by kirstenr

Hi northernlimitptv,
That answers my second question, thanks. (When there is something there, but your best guess sucks---guess anyway!)

In the case of my first question, I'm usually referring to branches moving overhead (so if we are to code, it would probably be "other primate," not "other non-primate"). But I'm talking about when only the branches and no part of an animal is visible. On the ground, the choice would usually be between a small gray duiker and a monkey (other, non-primate vs. other, primate), and in a tree, the choice would be between a monkey and a squirrel (other, primate vs. other, non-primate). Do you see my dilemma? Should we still code with our best guess?

I also have this issue in regard to vocalizing offscreen when the bird/animal isn't seen in the video. Should we mark "nothing there" or code according to our best guess?

Posted May 13, 2015 4:08 PM

by northernlimitptv scientist, moderator

Hey again @Kirsten A. Rohrbach ! In both cases (can't see anything but know something is present, only hear something but don't see it), please still code with your best guess! We don't really have a better option for these situations (which are hopefully rare!!).

However what would be SUPER helpful is if you could add comments in the page for that video ( such as this page: http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP0000krp), that let us know that the animal is out of sight and can't be IDed! That way we know the whole story 😃

Thanks Kirsten!

Posted May 14, 2015 12:45 PM

by Aqua_Fairy

I have created this tag-group collection #out_of_sight for these videos, after reading this thread. Hope it is helpful 😃

Posted May 17, 2015 7:56 PM

by gamincat

I wish I had asked about this before. I think the tag #out_of_sight is good and I will use it. I am afraid I have sometimes marked Nothing There when all I saw was a blurry part of an animal leaving the frame and had no clue what it was. I will always mark a guess from now on and then annotate as out of sight or just not visible enough to ID. Also sometimes everything in the video is shaking violently and I am pretty sure that is when people are adjusting the camera., If I verified it was a person by sight, I put human but sometimes Nothing There. I will also now mark these as human as my best guess. Thanks!

Posted May 18, 2015 2:31 PM

by northernlimitptv scientist, moderator

Awesome, thanks @Aqua_Fairy!

Posted May 18, 2015 5:24 PM

by Kazesim

A sort of related question:
There are a lot of videos of you guys setting up the cameras, should I mark those as "human" or "nothing there"?

Posted May 19, 2015 5:40 PM

by ksigler moderator in response to Kazesim's comment.

Those should be marked "Human."

Posted May 19, 2015 5:59 PM