EyeWire
| Eyewire | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Wired Differently, Inc. (formerly Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Director(s) | Amy L Robinson |
| Platform(s) | Webbrowser (WebGL) |
| Release | December 10, 2012 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle, Citizen Science |
Eyewire is a game to map the brain that originated at Sebastian Seung's Lab at MIT. This citizen science human-based computation game challenges players to map 3D neurons in a retina. Eyewire was officially launched on December 10, 2012 and has since grown to over 200,000 players from 150 countries. The game is led by non-profit MIT-spinoff Wired Differently, Inc., in partnership with Seung Lab at Princeton University with data generated by the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research.
Eyewire gameplay advances neuroscience by helping researchers discover how neurons connect to process visual information. Anyone, anywhere can help neuroscientists develop advanced artificial intelligence and computational technologies for mapping the connectome. In Eyewire, gamers solve 3D puzzles. As they solve the puzzles, they are actually reconstructing 3D models of neurons at nanoscale resolution from electron microscopy images. Eyewire requires no scientific background to play and works best on high speed internet.
Eyewire has been featured by WIRED, Nature, Forbes, Scientific American, NPR and more.
Eyewire challenges players, "Eyewirers," to map neurons in 3D. Upon registering, players are automatically directed through a tutorial that explains the game. Supplementary video tutorials are available on the Eyewire Blog.
In Eyewire, a gamer is given a cube with a partially reconstructed neuron branch stretching through it. On the right side of the screen there is a black-and-white image of the cross sections of neurons (Figure A, below). A player learns to "color" inside a gray outline of a single neuron branch, which usually extends from one side of the cube to another. This generates volumetric reconstructions, branch by branch.
Multiple players map each cube and their work is compared. Advanced players, Scouts and Scythes, oversee the work of the global community. These players have the power to extend branches and remove erroneous segments (nicknamed "mergers").
The player's task is to select the areas that the AI missed, thus improving the trace of the neuron. Some improvements may merely fill in holes. Others may extend a branch, and others may find new branches that the AI missed. In the interface, a three-dimensional view shows the trace of the neuron through the volume, while the player can scroll up and down in the two-dimensional slices to follow the path. The player clicks on areas in the slices to add them to the trace. The AI automatically fills in the parts of the neuron that it detects are part of the player's clicked area. Once the player has decided the task is complete, the player submits the task and is presented with another task.
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Wikipedia