It's fun having these start running in the forests!

Hi Sol! This seems like an awesome project! I have a few questions in response: Where were you thinking of deploying this payload and for how long? 

Regarding hydromoth recorders, there have been several concerns that have popped up in my work with deploying the them at this depth because it's a contact type hydrophone which means it utilizes the case to transmit the sound vibrations of the marine soundscape to the microphone unlike the piezo element based hydrophones. 

• At 30-60m you will likely have the case leak after an extended period of time if not immediately. The O-ring will deform at this depth, especially around the hinge of the housing. The square prism shape is not ideal for deep deployments you describe.  
• After that depth and really starting at about 50m, a major concern is synthetic implosion from the small air pocket of the hydromoth not having a pressure release valve and lithium ion batteries getting exposed to salt water. This type of reaction would cause your other instruments to probably break or fail as well. 
• You are unlikely to get a signal with a reinforced enclosure. The signal is generated via the material and geometry of the housing. The plastic will probably deform and mess with your frequency response and sound to noise ratio. If you place it against metal, it will dampen the sound quite a lot. We tried to do this, but the sensitivity is quite low with a large amount of self noise. 

• A side not: for biodiversity assessments, the hydromoth is not characterized and is highly directional, so you wouldn't be able to compare sites through your standard aocustic indices like ACI and SPL.  

  That said if you are deploying for a short time, a hydrophone like an Aquarian H1a attached through a penetrator of a blue robotics housing that contains a field recorder like a zoom recorder may be optimal for half a day and be relatively cheaper than some of the other options. You could also add another battery pack in parrallel for a longer duration. 

   

Hi Johnathan!

Here are a few examples where UAVs and AI has been used to spot animals. 

https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/7/3/179#:~:text=These%20vehicles%20follow%20flight%20plans,accurate%20than%20traditional%20counting%20approaches.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2656.13904

A google scholar search as this will find many more:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=uav+animals+wildlife+AI+computer+vision&btnG=

One thing often forgotten when considering UAVs for aerial surveys like these are that maximum height above ground is normally about 100-120m. This really limits the area one can cover.

Cheers,

Lars

Super great to see that there will be more work on insect ecoacoustics! So prevalent in practically every soundscape, but so often over-looked. Can't wait to follow this project as it develops!

I love the live-stream pin feature!

Hi Tim, I just discovered your great little device and about to use it for the first time this weekend. Would love to be directly in touch since we are testing it out as an option to recommend to our clients :) Love that it includes Australian birds! Cheers Debbie

Hi @timbirdweather I've now got them up and running and winding how I can provide feedback on species ID to improve the accuracy over time. It would be really powerful to have a confirmation capability when looking at the soundscape options to confirm which of the potential species it actually is or confirm it is neither to help develop the algorithms.

Also, is it possible to connect the PUC to a mobile hotspot to gather data for device that isn't close to wifi? And have it so that it can detect either wifi or hotspot when in range? Thanks!