Tutorial
Registration
Welcome to CONE Welder!
This section is to help you learn how to use our system. This video shows how to register and login. To register, click the sign-up link above the login fields, which then prompts you to a registration form. Fill-in the requested information. Note that your username will be displayed in the chatroom, so please choose a name that you'll be comfortable with. Your username should not use capital letters and should consist of one continuous word without any spaces. Please be sure that your password only consists of alphanumeric characters. When you've completed these steps, please press 'register'.
After submitting the form, you'll receive an email with a link for activating your account. Log onto the email address you registered with and you'll find an email from support.cone.welder@gmail.com with your new username. Click the link in the body of the email. Once your account is activated, use the login box on the front page to sign into CONE Welder with the email address and password you specified when you registered.
Camera
First, login with your account name. Also, make sure your browser is opened to the proper size and resolution of at least 1024 by 768. Click the power button on the camera to start the live video feed, which will begin after a few seconds. The camera position and the zoom feature are activated by clicking and holding your mouse to drag a rectangular frame on the large photo panorama at the top of the page. The smaller the rectangular frame that is created, the closer zoom focus will result.
Most of the time other users will simultaneously be utilizing the system, creating frame requests. Their requests may be fulfilled first, but your request will eventually be realized onscreen. Another method for moving the camera is to use the arrows on the camera to move the video feed. To take a snapshot, press the camera icon in the middle of the cursors. There is an unmistakable indication after the camera has successfully taken a picture.
Gallery
All of the photos you've taken are displayed in the Gallery in chronological order of when they've been taken. The Gallery reloads every time it's clicked from another part of the website. The Gallery is refreshed by clicking the refresh button. Use the drop-down menu on the top right of the Gallery to filter the results. Photo results may be filtered based on the following categories: unclassified birds, personal photos, daily favorites, and specifically classified birds. It's easy to scroll through each set of pictures. To view the next page of photos, press 'next'.
For an enlarged view of any image, double click on the photo. To the right of the image you can see what other users may have commented as well as being able to add your own comments. Images may be rated by clicking the number of stars out of five you decide from the five blank stars above the comment box. To leave an image to return to the main Gallery, push the 'return to gallery' button below the image.
Zone
Go to any unclassified image that you'd like to classify. Click the view zones that already exist, mousing over the image. These rectangular \"zones\" within a photo allow players to concentrate on particular areas to be classified. Typically each zone contains one bird or animal species. To add a zone, click the 'add zones' button. New zones are created by clicking, dragging, and letting go of the mouse button on an image, causing a bounding box to be formed. Multiple zones may be created before submitting the zones. To delete a zone, hold down 'shift' and click on the zone. When all relevant zones have been created, press the 'submit zones' button.
To classify a zone, click on the zone which will become illuminated while the surrounding area will appear darkened. A new comments section corresponding only to that particular zone will appear. Classification tools will load below the image. Choose a general category for the classification in the drop down menu and then use the auto-complete box to select the species. Select a species name from the auto-complete list that will be provided. When a species is selected an image will appear to the right to illustrate that species. After selecting a species, click the 'classify' button. To move on from the zone click the image again and it will return to normal.
Chat
Click on the chat tab next to the welcome tab. Doing so displays which users have logged-on and logged-off as well as the those users currently logged into the system with any conversations they're having. To join the conversation by sending a message, type in the text box at the bottom and hit 'enter'.
Score
By clicking on the scores tab a summary of your current score appears. At the top your total score to date is displayed with the score you've earned on the current day. Underneath the totals is a pie chart with a breakdown of how you earned your total score. Mouse over the section to see the title of any points you earned within that section. Click on the section to get an explanation of those rewards below the pie chart.
Scores are broken down into two main awards groupings: daily awards and activity awards. Daily rewards are given for such categories as: earliest photo, latest photo, and most activity photo. Activity rewards are based on photography and classification skills.
By pressing the activity history button, the total number of points you've earned on a day to day basis is displayed. By pressing the scoreboard button, the current scoreboard is displayed with your standing compared to other users. It shows both the total and the daily scores with the highest daily scores shown on the welcome page.
Statistics
By clicking on the statistics tab, a breakdown of all the classifications by percentage is displayed. Mouse over items in the pie chart to seeing the identified species and what percentage of the total number of classified species they represent. Clicking on the sighting history option displays the log of day-to-day sightings, which may be filtered based on the sightings of specific species of bird or other animal.