Lucid August 2015 Newsletter
- Fact Sheet Fusion 2.0.4 now
released
- Lucid Phoenix update
- Insect Orders Mobile App
updated
- MyCrop Mobile Apps released
- Rainforest Plants from Rockhampton
to Victoria updated
- Rare and Priority Flora of the Pilbara
- Genetic Analysis Tools
- UQ 2015 Innovation Award Winner
- TropAg Conference
It's August already! It's hard to believe how fast this
year has gone by. The whole Identic team has been working
non-stop to bring a number of projects to completion as well
as preparing for the release of upgrades to meet the ever
changing technology landscape.
Windows 10 has now been released and for those users who
love to be on the cutting edge can rest assured that Lucid,
Lucid Phoenix and Fact Sheet Fusion will work under the new
operating system.
There are also changes coming to the Chrome browser that
will affect the way plug-ins such as the Java-based applet
player Player rely on. To this end we have begun work on a
completely new Lucid Player that will have no reliance on
the Java Runtime Environment.
The good news is it will still be cross-platform compatible
(Windows, OSX, Linux, etc.), work on-line or off-line and
load directly in your web browser. We'll release more
information on this project as it progresses further over
the next few months. In the meantime, if you would like to
utilise the existing Java free online player to make your
keys available across the web free of charge, contact [email protected].
For examples of keys currently powered by the online player
– go to https://keys.lucidcentral.org/
Please read on to see what's been happening over the last
couple of months since our last newsletter.
The Identic Team.
Fact Sheet Fusion 2.0.4 released
Another huge update packed with new features and enhancements
has just been released. Two exciting new features include the
ability to import content from existing HTML pages and Word
documents as well being able to interact with an on-line
taxonomic name service. To read more about this update and to try it out click here.
Lucid Phoenix Updated
Lucid Phoenix enables new or existing dichotomous keys to be deployed on the Internet. This software and its setup package has been updated to better suit changes in recent editions of Windows and Java. Existing licence holders can update to this new edition free of charge.For more information on Lucid Phoenix or to try it out click here.
Insect Orders Mobile App Updated
The Insect Orders mobile app which was first released last
year has now been updated for both Android and iOS to
incorporate all the latest enhancements to the Lucid Mobile
player. We have also recently started a collaboration with
Professor Steve Marshall, Director of the Insect Collection
at the University Guelph, to overhaul and upgrade the key
and content. The aim is to release a new version in the next
4-6 months. This update should include refreshed content,
images and the new Lucid observation and on-line mapping
functions.
MyCrop Apps released
We've just finished work on a number of new Lucid Mobile-based MyCrop releases for the Department of Agriculture and Food in Western Australia (DAFWA). The popular MyCrop apps, funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), have been expanded and now include Wheat, Barley, Pulses and Canola. These diagnostic tools also incorporate customised economic calculators and reporting tools to the DAFWA reporting service on pests and diseases called PestFax.
More information about the MyCrop app is available at www.agric.wa.gov.au/mycrop.
Rainforest Plants from Rockhampton to Victoria
This incredibly popular Lucid based identification key to
over 1,100 rainforest species has just been updated to v1.2.
The new version includes taxonomic changes, additional
images and minor corrections.
The update is free for existing licence holders and can be
downloaded from Gwen Harden Publishing (https://rainforests.net.au/).
Rare and Priority Flora of the Pilbara
Western Australian Herbarium, Rio Tinto and the Australian Minister for the Environment will be launching the Lucid based mobile app "Rare and Priority Flora of the Pilbara" next month.For the past six months this field guide and identification tool to 183 Threatened and Priority flora known from the Pilbara bioregion has been updated and includes all species currently listed as conservation taxa by the Department of Parks and Wildlife as well as species not yet recorded from the region but likely to be found there.
Other Projects
Genetic Analysis Tools
One of our most recently completed projects is a state of the art web application for genetic testing of animals for the Animal Genetic Laboratory (AGL) located at the Gatton campus of the University of Queensland. AGL’s testing services are used to prove identification, parentage, diseases and trait prediction (e.g. whether animals are polled or not polled (horns)), for industry certification and sales. It even supports police forensic work catching cattle rustlers!Our software is currently handling over 10 million genetic marker results for more than 500,000 animals and nearly 10,000 customers, with numbers increasing daily. Thanks to this new cutting edge software and the hard work of their laboratory staff, AGL recently set a new record for throughput of tests, which was up 25% on their previous record set 2 years ago.
For more information on this project please contact [email protected].
UQ 2015 Innovation Award Winner
School of Languages and Cultures Management Database
The Identic team has been involved in a long term project to develop an on-line management database for the School of Languages and Cultures at The University of Queensland. This database system, which has been in operational use for the past 12 months, recently won the 2015 UQ Innovation Award. The on-line web application has streamlined the day to day management and reporting tasks of the school, incorporating teaching timetabling, budgeting, human resources and asset management. The benefits of this integrated approach has been paying off with very significant budget savings and faster more accurate reporting.TropAg Conference
The Identic teams old stomping grounds are holding the TropAg conference with the goal to bring together many of the leading scientific voices and facilitate cross-border collaboration, new project development and technology transfer – with a focus on the delivery of a diverse range of tropical and subtropical agricultural scientific advances for the food, plant and animal industries.The conference will be held:
Monday 16 – Wednesday 18 November 2015
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Brisbane, Australia
If you are interested in attending this conference see https://tropagconference.com.au/