New smartphone workflows revolutionize the digitization of natural history collections

By digitizing these data, we can preserve valuable knowledge about our biodiversity, especially in times of climate change and biodiversity crises.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A team from the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) has discovered groundbreaking ways for rapidly digitizing collection data. Data of insect specimen labels can now be easily read with just a smartphone – and all wirelessly and using only free, already available apps!

A screenshot of Google Lens interface, displaying translation options and a set of specimen labels on a light surface.
A screenshot showing Google Lens and a label in blue text describing a specimen collected in North Iraq, Kurdistan, detailing location and scientific classification.
A screenshot of Google Lens showing a photo of a collection of labels from specimens, featuring names, locations, and scientific references, displayed on a textured surface.
A screenshot from Google Lens with a photo of labels on specimens.
A screenshot showing a photo of a label detailing a collection site in Arunachal Pradesh, India, including location, elevation, and collection date.
A screenshot featuring a photo of a label detailing a collection from Wagam village in Arunachal Pradesh, India, taken at 1000m altitude, June 2018.
Screenshots from a mobile phone showing the steps of scanning of real-time data collection, and examples of labels: A step 1: marking of the text to be captured via touch screen of the mobile phone (example – printed labels scanned on pin) B step 2: select from menu bar (at the right side under three dots) “Copy to computer” (example – printed labels scanned separately). C Capture of multidirectional printed labels scanned separately from the specimen in “Google Lens” D Capture of multiple distorted, printed labels scanned on the pinned specimen in “Google Lens” E Initial capture of a printed label scanned separately from the specimen in “Google Keep” F Extracted data resulting from E.

Why is this important?

Around 1.1 billion objects in the largest natural history museums worldwide remain undigitized and manual extraction of specimen label information for taxonomic revisions, another source for biodiversity data mobilization, is very time consuming. By digitizing these data, we can preserve valuable knowledge about our biodiversity, especially in times of climate change and human biodiversity crisis when many species are going extinct before they are even discovered.

Trending
New species of stiletto snake capable of sideways strikes discovered in West Africa

This innovation will accelerate and advance global research and the preservation of our biological knowledge. And the best part? It’s not expensive and accessible to everyone – from professionals to amateur scientists!

Research article:

Ahrens D, Haas A, Pacheco TL, Grobe P (2025) Extracting specimen label data rapidly with a smartphone—a great help for simple digitization in taxonomy and collection management. ZooKeys 1233: 15-30. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1233.140726

Tags: museum collections, digitization, biology, biodivdersity, taxonomy