Recent advancements in biomedical research, particularly the development of high- throughput methodologies, have allowed researchers to collect huge quantities of data at prodigious rates. For data that is visual or graphical in nature data analysis often poses a significant challenge. Segmentation or tracing of specific features within microscopic images, for example, is often difficult to completely automate due to noise and variations in sample quality and image collection. Images must often be analyzed manually, which is often a laborious and time consuming process. In order to address this issue, we will develop an open platform for crowdsourcing visual data analysis called Quorum. Quorum is an interactive, engaging painting game that allows members of the public to trace images or other visual data. As an open platform, Quorum will allow any researcher to upload images using a custom web-based interface and specify a segmentation challenge. After the images have been traced by game users, the researchers can retrieve their analyzed data on the Quorum website. Quorum will be free to use and open-source, allowing anyone to play or modify the platform.
Advances in biology research have allowed us to gather large amounts of scientific data very quickly, but analyzing this data has become a bottleneck for many researchers due to the fact that analysis can often not be completely automated. To help address this issue, we are creating software called Quorum that will allow the public to analyze visual scientific data in an interactive and entertaining way.
