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WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

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Sensors / Feed

Want to talk about sensors that don't quite fit into any of our tech-specific groups? This is the place to post! From temperature and humidity to airflow and pressure sensors, there are many environmental sensing tools that can add valuable data to core conservation monitoring technologies. With the increasing availability of low-cost, open-source options, we've seen growing interest in integrating these kinds of low bandwidth sensors into existing tools. What kinds of sensors are you working with?

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Training Opportunity: Durrell Conservation Academy

Durrell Conservation Academy

16 July 2020 12:00am

Durrell Conservation Academy is now accepting applications for their popular training course program, taking place in 2021. These courses cover a wide range of general and specific conservation subjects, including GIS...

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How do I repair my camera traps?

WILDLABS Team

13 July 2020 12:00am

Our fifth WILDLABS Tech Tutors are Laure Joanny, Rob Appleby, and Alistair Stewart, who teamed up to tackle the question: How do I repair my camera traps? You can catch up on this tutorial on our Youtube channel and...

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discussion

Seeking research projects related to monitoring wildlife behavior

Benjamin Seleb

20 June 2020 3:34pm

Hi all, my name is Ben Seleb and I'm an incoming robotics PhD student at Georgia Tech. I've been given the awesome opportunity to identify my own research topic, and I...

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Carly Batist

22 June 2020 8:54pm

Hi Ben!

I think we've had correspondence on Twitter in the past, but can't remember for sure... Anyways, I'm a primatology PhD student and do fieldwork in Madagascar studying lemurs (specifically Ranomafana National Park). My dissertation is on lemur vocal communication, but I am doing an applied chapter focused on passive acoustic monitoring as well. I've tested out a bunch of different PAM devices (ARU's-autonomous recording units) e.g., SongMeter, Swift, AudioMoth and am currently annotating call files and prepping a training dataset that I hope to begin using with an ML model to identify species-specific calls. Vocals are a great use-case with behavior and tech as you can sometimes ID contexts, individuals, etc based on acoustic structure or usage which would be really cool (albeit very complicated) to incorporate. 

Also have some experience with camera-traps, and the area I work in in Mada is part of the TEAM network so I'm hoping to incorporate camera-traps and ARUs in the same area. I work with local  researchers and students (via the Malagasy-run Centre ValBio research station) and am looking to develop community-led initiatives as well so I've got the low-cost, open-source interest as well.  

I'll stop typing an essay now, but definitely would love to chat!! Feel free to message me on Twitter or email me (cbatist@gradcenter.cuny.edu). 

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Event: Arm’s AI Virtual Tech Sessions

Arm

9 June 2020 12:00am

Want to sharpen your machine learning skills and get advice from experts on getting started with tinyML development? Arm's new AI Virtual Tech Sessions for Software Developers will walk you through a series of demos and...

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article

Innovator Interview: Hack the Poacher

WILDLABS Team

4 June 2020 12:00am

Conservation technology largely consists of two categories: tools to monitor and study wildlife and their habitats, and solutions to mitigate or prevent negative human impacts. The fight against poaching in particular...

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Webinar: The Next Generation Of Animal Telemetry

BOEM

1 June 2020 12:00am

Register now for this webinar on how BOEM and NASA are accelerating small satellite technology development to innovate new solutions for tracking large marine animals. This event will look at the next phases of a...

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funding

Competition: 2020 Hackaday Prize

Conservation X Labs

26 May 2020 12:00am

The 2020 Hackaday Prize competition has begun! This year, Conservation X Labs has partnered with the Hackaday Prizes as one of four nonprofits seeking tech-based solutions to urgent challenges. Conservation X Labs'...

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WILDLABS Tech Tutors: Season One

WILDLABS Team

19 May 2020 12:00am

We've wrapped season one of Tech Tutors! Thank you to all of our Tutors, and to everyone who attended and made these episodes so exciting! You can find all of our episodes on the WILDLABS Youtube Channel, and find...

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discussion

sound loop devise

Eric Younberg

26 April 2020 1:29pm

I need to create something to play a sound loop 24/7 for at least 4 weeks solar powered. I am currently working with solar powered speakers and an mp3 player hooked up...

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Nigel Butcher

12 May 2020 4:07pm

I reckon if you could get down to a power consumption of 2-3Ah per day like our system had then a battery of 20Ah is suitable for a week and you wouldn't need inverters and solar panels etc. I agree that in your environment everything will struggle with being powered for 24hrs. I rarely have that problem to contend with! Will have a look at a temperature test of our design over the Summer and will share the details in a blog if it looks like it will prove a solution for all environments.

Rob Appleby

12 May 2020 7:14pm

Hi Eric, I think you could do away with an inverter, and instead use something like a DC-DC step-down (sometimes called a 'buck') converter. The solar and battery system is 12VDC correct? Chances are that the MP3 player wall charger is pumping out something like 5VDC (it should be written on the side of the plug)? Something like this would work: https://www.altronics.com.au/p/z6338-dc-dc-converter-module-3.5-35v-input-5-56v-output/

or if it is a 12V battery as I suspect, virtually any 'car' charger for a phone would do (just as I suspect the powerbank will). Hopefully, a large capacity powerbank is enough anyway, and you don't even need solar...

Eric Younberg

13 May 2020 12:39pm

Yes im hoping the power bank and a few extra mp3s will get it done this year. will look into a better system this winter now that I have some help:)

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discussion

Notification systems for trap activation

Andrew Carter

10 January 2019 5:30am

Can anyone recommend trap alarm devices that send notifications (via SMS or email) when a trap has been activated? I work in remote locations (in Australia) with no phone...

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Andrew Carter

4 May 2020 2:05am

Hi Rahid,

Thanks for your reply. In answer to your questions:

#1

There would be no external power (or cell phone reception) available at any of the node? The nodes would need to be completely autonomous.

#2

Total number of nodes would likley be in the range of 100–200 within a project area.

#3

The maximum distance between two nodes would likely be 5 km.

#4

All i want to transmit is an alert to say whether a trap has been activated or not. No video is required.

 

Many thanks,

                       Andrew

 

Rashid Altayer

4 May 2020 3:00am

Ok, we can customize a solution for you, but probably won't be able to get this out to you for around 3-4 months.

RF and mesh is our domain.  We can guarantee NLOS at well over  20 km+.

5KM in not a large distance. Not sure if LoRa can handle 200 nodes or work in the bush --- trees are the enemy of anything above 300 MHz.

I'm all for using HF (below 30MHz) or tactical VHF (30-108 MHz).

Would 1-1.6m antennas work?

 

---

I can email you a case study for a much more complex project that we did last December .

We were able to transmit video using 100KHz of bandwidth over a frequency of 30.5 MHz.  Our moving car was traveling at 130 km/h and achieved a 64km+ distance from the base station --- we used 50% less bandwidth to transmit video than what an FM radio station uses to transmit tunes and other meta data.  Our glass to glass (camera lense to monitor) latency was 24ms.

---

Our solutions don't require an expensive sattelite link or any phone network to work (although we can add those options).

What this means is that our radios will always work, come rain, come snow, et al. --- Satellite links are easily disrupted by a low cast / clouds , etc.

Our signals reflect and refract of the ground and the ionosphere to give you NLOS in any condition.

So a sensor based project of 200 nodes is no problem at all.

 

--- 

 

If waiting 3-4 months is not a big deal, then we can donate a few units to your project once we learn more about it.

 

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funding

Competition: iWildCam 2020

WILDLABS Team

4 May 2020 12:00am

Want to compete in the iWildCam 2020 competition identifying species in camera trap images to support biodiversity monitoring efforts and automatic species classification model improvements? Because the Workshop on Fine...

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article

Call for Submissions – Arm Research Summit 2020

Arm

24 April 2020 12:00am

The 2020 Arm Research Summit is accepting submissions from all research disciplines focusing on the role of technology in solving global challenges. Submissions should reflect the potential of sustainable, secure, and...

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article

Talking Tracking with Xerius

Ellie Warren

23 April 2020 12:00am

How does tracking technology meet the many challenges specific to monitoring birds within their home ranges and over long distances during migration? WILDLABS community member Virginie Perilhon from Xerius Tracking...

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#FieldKit50: Earth Day Giveaway

Conservify

22 April 2020 12:00am

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day this April 22nd, our friends at FieldKit are giving away 50 of their open source sensor stations! FieldKit believes that everyone, regardless of financial resources, should...

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article

WILDLABS Tech Hub: WWF PandaSat

WILDLABS Team

13 April 2020 12:00am

At the 2018 London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference, we announced the WILDLABS Tech Hub, an accelerator programme created to support the development and scaling of groundbreaking technological solutions addressing the ...

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Online Workshop: Conservation Technology

Hack the Poacher

23 March 2020 12:00am

On Friday, March 27th, meet the Hack the Poacher team in this free online webinar to discuss the latest innovations in conservation technology. This interactive event offers the opportunity to make connections in the...

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