OrchID: a Generalized Framework for Taxonomic Classification of Images Using Evolved Artificial Neural Networks

Taxonomic expertise for the identification of species is rare and costly. On-going advances in computer vision and machine learning have led to the development of numerous semi- and fully automated species identification systems. However, these systems are rarely agnostic to specific morphology, rarely can perform taxonomic \"approximation\" (by which we mean partial identification at least to higher taxonomic level if not to species), and frequently rely on costly scientific imaging technologies. We present a generic, hierarchical identification system for automated taxonomic approximation of organisms from images. We assessed the effectiveness of this system using photographs of slipper or