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Emerging Tech / Feed

Technology is changing and evolving faster than ever, and as it does, our community members are looking for the next big thing to revolutionize their conservation tech work. To chat about your favorite new tools that are just emerging in the field and discover innovations you haven't yet heard of, join this group!

discussion

Rainforest SigFox available for use

Roland Kays

26 August 2022 6:09pm

Hi EveryoneJust FYI that right now we now have a SigFox gateway running to create an IoT network at the Los Amigos field station in lowland Peruvian Amazon.  Amazing forest,...

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Carly Batist

26 September 2022 10:20pm

Hi Roland,

This is really amazing, great to hear about your set-up! I'm just wondering what the overall cost was to set up this system? Just thinking in terms of setting up something similar in other parks and what they should expect with regard to price. Would also be great to hear about the overall effort, e.g., hours/team members required. It would be great to have this act as a blueprint for other organizations/research stations wishing to deploy a similar system within their respective national parks/areas/etc.! 

Antoine Ede

10 October 2022 8:33am

Hi Rolland,

Interested too, but why did you choose SigFox (a private network) rather than LoRa (open network)? 

Sigfox currently has some financial troubles that, don't know what it will become in the long term.

Roland Kays

18 October 2022 11:55am

Hi Everyone,

We chose sigfox becuase it seems to have better range and is plug-play, whereas LoRa requires more custom programming and updating.  Getting a gateway cost us $2000 for a year's lease + deposit. We covered solar power.  There are also some 'minigateways' you can purchase but I don't know how they compare in range (plan to test).  So far we are happy with the performance, in that it has worked consistency with no outages  (once we stabilized the power supply).  I think the annual costs are about $10 per tag.  We are working on a paper that will describe this in more detail.  So far just using for tracking tags but also looking at a trap sensor.

cheers

Roland

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discussion

What's on your technology wish list?

Isobel Ashbey

30 August 2022 5:34pm

I work for a technology development company (Cambridge Consultants) and every academic year our interns run their own projects in small teams to develop a new technology proof of...

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Brett Muir

8 September 2022 6:01am

Forever sensors are certainly possible. So many concepts out there. Just need a few to make it to market. Between conventional/quantum chips dramatically reducing in power consumption and novel power options. Rovers are already powered with radioactive materials. Perhaps something like diamond batteries could make that safe for human use. I've also read a paper on using glucose to power devices. Could maybe just tap a tree and add a sensor. There's always a way. Humans are so clever.

Colin Cook

8 October 2022 1:07am

I'd be ecstatic if a nest box or natural tree hollow (or burrow) monitoring device could be developed. Infrared images/video and sound recording, either triggered by motion detection or time schedule. File download/transfer without having to physically access the device and connection via standalone Wi-Fi or Bluetooth well away from any networks. I want to monitor inside nest boxes and have been trying domestic security cameras, but these usually require a wifi network to connect and can be too large for inside nest boxes. I have recently purchased a different model to test, but It's still not ideal (the camera is JUST small enough for a nest box)

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Link

New paper: Battery-free wireless imaging of underwater environments

Carly Batist

29 September 2022 3:22pm

'The low-power camera uses power from harvested acoustic energy and communicates colour images wirelessly via acoustic backscatter.' - https://twitter.com/NaturePortfolio/status/1574863768714100738?s=20&t=dK2D_5wEIjwd5AQa1vFMfQ

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Read "Battery-free wireless imaging of underwater environments | Nature Communications" on Nature

Battery-free wireless imaging of underwater environments | Nature Communications

Imaging underwater environments is of great importance to marine sciences, sustainability, climatology, defense, robotics, geology, space exploration, and food security. Despite advances in underwater imaging, most of the ocean and marine organisms remain unobserved and undiscovered. Existing methods for underwater imaging are unsuitable for scalable, long-term, in situ observations because they require tethering for power and communication. Here we describe underwater backscatter imaging, a method for scalable, real-time wireless imaging of underwater environments using fully-submerged battery-free cameras. The cameras power up from harvested acoustic energy, capture color images using ultra-low-power active illumination and a monochrome image sensor, and communicate wirelessly at net-zero-power via acoustic backscatter. We demonstrate wireless battery-free imaging of animals, plants, pollutants, and localization tags in enclosed and open-water environments. The method’s self-sustaining nature makes it desirable for massive, continuous, and long-term ocean deployments with many applications including marine life discovery, submarine surveillance, and underwater climate change monitoring. The authors present an approach to underwater imaging, which does not require tethering or batteries. The low-power camera uses power from harvested acoustic energy and communicates colour images wirelessly via acoustic backscatter.

Nature
discussion

Conservation Tech Directory - new update!

Carly Batist

29 August 2022 2:38pm

New directory update from @gracieermi & I! And an extra special one as we've just passed our 1-year anniversary! Super exciting to see how far this has come! Check it out:...

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Liz Ferguson

23 September 2022 5:26pm

Congrats on the milestone Carly and Gracie!

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Link

WIA After Hours: Episode #5 - AI for Wildlife Conservation and Imageomics with Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf

WILDLABS Team

21 September 2022 6:53pm

Listen to Tanya Berger-Wolf's conversation about AI for Wildlife Conservation and imageomics with Lauren Burke on the Women In Analytics After Hours Podcast.

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event

Data Beyond Borders Symposium

Stephanie O'Donnell

15 September 2022 12:35pm

Join Biodiversa+and GBIF: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility on 6 October 2022 for their joint symposium: "Data beyond borders: collaborating to support biodiversity information needs in Europe and beyond...

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careers

Senior Innovation Officer, EPA

Stephanie O'Donnell

14 September 2022 1:23pm

This Senior-Level (SL) position is located in the Office of Research and Development (ORD), Office of Science Advisor, Policy and Engagement (OSAPE). The location will be determined after a selection has been made...

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discussion

Virtual fencing / Kinetic energy harvesting / Holistic grazing

David Blažević

16 June 2022 7:12am

Hi everyone, Stephanie invited me to share some recent developments in Finalnd.I'm David and I'm a mechanical engineer from Rijeka, Croatia, working as a Marie Curie postdoc at...

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Lars Holst Hansen

31 July 2022 5:15pm

I see, thanks!

One daily fix is quite limiting.

Do you have an idea how KEH might affect accelerometry?

Cheers,

David Blažević

2 September 2022 11:05am

I don't think KEH would influence accelerometry at all.

One other way to think about it is - the KEH is a movement sensor itself.

The GPS is quite a severe factor in the energy balance of the system, so if the data is perhaps not transmitted constantly, more frequent locks could be achieved. I believe GPS transceivers are becoming more and more efficient and the KEH enabled GPS should become an option soon.

 

Kr,

D-

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article

Mara Predators Hackathon 

Alessandro Mazzi

30 August 2022 1:28pm

APPLY NOW! The Sovereign Nature Initiative has partnered with the Kenya Wildlife Trust to experiment with emerging technologies to support their predators' conservation work.Challenges will focus on:1. Lion...

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article

Ceres Wild Rhino application 

Kim Lane

22 August 2022 1:29am

An update on Ceres Tags products that are being used in conservation 

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Kim Lane

29 September 2022 4:05am

Some updates and a news report on the Malilangwe Trust application of devices; Ceres Trace and Ceres Wild
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careers

Lead Software Engineer, Wildlife Insights

Nicole Flores

10 August 2022 11:06pm

Are you creative, love new challenges and have experience developing software? The Wildlife Insights team is hiring! Join a diverse team of ecologists, data scientists, engineers and machine learning experts to protect...

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Link

Technology may solve climate change problems, but it’s also causing them | VentureBeat

Stephanie O'Donnell

8 August 2022 11:26am

Interesting thought piece from Mark Minevitch (AI for Good) et al. on the promise of AI and other ICT innovation to deliver on climate challenges, existing ICT sector emissions - and the three types of carbon lock-in which need to be actively managed (behavioural, digital,...

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