What is Meduseo?
Meduseo is above all an information tool, an aid to save time and favor the right beach with complete peace of mind. Arriving on a beach and seeing the presence of jellyfish in the water, it must be admitted, it's annoying! Even if it is on its own, trust is often lost!
The ultimate goal of Meduseo is to provide a jellyfish weather service. In the same way that you check forecasts for temperature or wind, you can be informed of the presence of jellyfish on the beaches.
So predict the presence of jellyfish?
That's the goal, but of course before you predict, you have to be able to identify where the jellyfish are located every day. The simplest and certainly the most reliable approach is observation. Go to each beach, and assess the quantity of jellyfish. Some research groups have implemented this type of surveillance with high quality. Problem: in France alone, more than 2400 beaches exist, so how to have as much information every day?
One of the solutions is to have a collaborative approach where everyone reports what they see, but we all know how it goes: you have to motivate people. They will be motivated during the holidays, but what about winter? In short, even if the reliability is very good, not all cities will be represented, especially not every day.
Thinking about it, there had to be other ways to get this information. Inevitably, we first look at the existing models and simulations, but we must admit that for the moment this approach is unreliable at the country level. Jellyfish move mainly according to currents and winds, their presence on a beach can therefore depend on its orientation.
"#Jellyfish #beach"
What if without knowing it, you were already sharing this information on jellyfish? The Internet is evolving, and the way people use it too. Everything is shared, liked, retweeted. Big companies use powerful marketing tools to track you. For once, couldn't these tools be used for more laudable purposes?
It is with this in mind that we have developed a series of tools dedicated to the extraction of relevant information based on Internet 2.0 data in order to identify and report the presence of jellyfish on the beaches. In the end, you have nothing more to do: everyone speaks, shares information on social networks, and naturally feeds our model. Of course, currently we can only make observations of the current situation.
Finally, it is good to specify that no personal information or private data is collected nor stored.
What about reliability?
Difficult to have control markers for all coastal cities. But... there are indicators! Remember, you must have seen in newspapers "arrival of jellyfish on the beach of...". These are data that can serve as controls. So I created a dedicated page here, to give you some examples!
Coverage
France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand... For all these countries we provide information on the presence of jellyfish. This list will grow, and will quickly include other regions (Japan, Africa).
You too can participate!
The tool is sufficient by itself, but it will never be as precise as an observation on the beach. This is why you can report the presence of jellyfish via the Android app, iPhone app, or the website. You will inform other users and strengthen the quality of information.
And what about forecasts?
We are working on it! We use knowledge acquired in other scientific fields to predict the appearance of jellyfish at D+1 based on weather, forecasts, and the presence of jellyfish the previous days.
Artificial intelligence helps us a lot (SVM, Deep Learning). These forecasts are still in the testing phase.
Where are there the most jellyfish?
A monthly newsletter is now published around the summer period.
Who created this tool?
My name is Jérémy Deverdun, I am a research engineer in medical imaging. In my spare time, I develop and improve Meduseo in order to make it available to as many people as possible.
I developed this tool in a very selfish way, for me! I found it unbearable to arrive on the beach and not be able to put my feet in the water. I am therefore the first user, and the first to complain when it's not working!
The tool is completely free. Do not hesitate to contact me: contact@meduseo.com.
Thank you ...
To all those who contribute to the existence and sharing of this site, and a big thanks to Midi Libre for their article.