I love a good-old nature walk. Luckily, the area we all live in is fantastic for it. With the amount of well maintained trails, walking paths, and mountains within a short driving distance from the Bangor area, there is no shortage of nature to explore. Heck, the Bangor City Forest alone has a half dozen ecosystems all by itself.

Frequently, my wife and I stop to admire some small plant or flower, only to show just how stupid we are when it comes to identifying them. We like to pretend we know what we're looking at, and go through a few suggestions of what it might be, but ultimately move on, because we just got done a five minute conversation based in general ignorance.

But now that spring is technically here, it's time to get outside, and there's a killer new app called Seek, that's going to make you look like a genius out on the trail. It works kind of like Shazam does. You take a photo, and with it's image recognition technology, it identifies the plant or animal from the over 30,000 species in the app. So no more wondering what specific kind of Spotted Salamander that is; this app will tell you!

There's also some features that can make it kind of like an educational game for the younger folks. You can earn badges, and learn all about each new species as you go. And as new members provide more photos over time, the database will expand as well. So every time folks use the app, it increases the available number of species. Pretty nifty, huh? It looks like this when you use it:

Photo: Seek App
Photo: Seek App
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I downloaded the app, and tried to see if it would recognize one of my co-workers in their natural habitat. It didn't recognize her, so it must be working. Ha! But seriously, the weather will warm up eventually, and you might as well make the most out of getting outdoors. Plus, you'll look like a smarty pants, and that's the most important part!

 

 

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