Bird spotting

Fans of multi-player online games who are also interested in nature can now try out a new system developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Texas A&M University.

The new online game allows players to earn points by taking live photos using a remotely controllable robotic video camera and classifying the wild birds they see.

Craig Newmark, founder and customer service representative of craigslist, one of the most popular online communities in the country, is hosting the robotic video camera project from the back deck of his home, which overlooks Sutro Forest in San Francisco.

'This is a new kind of massive multi-player online game,' said Ken Goldberg, a UC Berkeley professor of engineering and co-principal investigator of the project. "Rather than aiming a gun at virtual enemies, players aim a camera at live wild birds."

The technology behind the game, called Collaborative Observatories for Natural Environments-Sutro Forest (CONE Sutro Forest), was conceived by Goldberg and Dezhen Song, assistant professor of computer science at Texas A&M.