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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

Need advice - image management and tagging 

Ben Nyberg

12 January 2024 7:55pm

Hello Wildlabs,Our botany team is using drones to survey vertical cliffs for rare and endangered plants. Its going well and we have been able to locate and map many new...

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Bill Gray

24 January 2024 5:16pm

I have no familiarity with Lightroom, but the problem you describe seems like a pretty typical data storage and look up issue.  This is the kind of problem that many software engineers deal with on a daily bases.  In almost every circumstance this class of problem is solved using a database.

In fact, a potentially useful analysis is that the Lightroom database is not providing the feature set you need.

It seems likely that you are not looking for a software development project, and setting up you own DB would certainly require some effort, but if this is a serious issue for your work, you hope to scale your work up, or bring many other participants into your project, it might make sense to have an information system that better fits your needs.

There are many different databases out there optimized for different sorts of things.  For this I might suggest taking a look at MongoDB with GridFS for a couple of reasons.

  1. It looks like you meta data is in JSON format.  Many DBs are JSON compatible, but Mongo is JSON native.  It is especially good at storing and retrieving JSON data.  Its JSON search capabilities are excellent and easy to use.  It looks like you could export your data directly from Lightroom into Mongo, so it might be pretty easy actually.
  2. Mongo with the GridFS package is an excellent repository for arbitrarily large image files.
  3. It is straightforward to make a Mongo database accessible via a website.
  4. They are open source (in a manner of speaking) and you can run it for free.

Disclaimer: I used to work for MongoDB.  I don't anymore and I have no vested interest at all, but they make a great product that would really crush this whole class of problem.

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article

Cutting edge plant conservation

Ben Nyberg

9 January 2024 7:33am

A game-changing new tool is helping conservationists working with critically endangered cliff plants 

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Wade

9 January 2024 4:56pm

Great work!  Although even the expanded numbers of individual plants are still concerningly tiny, it is reassuring to know that nature can keep more secret holdouts than we...
Guillaume Charron

9 January 2024 7:10pm

This has been an incredible adventure so far! Glad to have contributed to a new technology that will have a concrete ecological impact.
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discussion

Apply to Beta test Instant Detect 2.0

Sam Seccombe

11 May 2023 10:55am

Hi WildLabs,ZSL is looking for Beta testers for Instant Detect 2.0. If you are a conservationist, scientist or wildlife ranger with experience working with innovative...

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Sean Roberts

21 December 2023 3:48am

Will you accept personal/hobbyist focused on conservation on their small plots of land (10-100 acres)?

I would, and know others, who would happily pay more than the official conservationists rate for the service, which could help to further subsidize the project. (Referring to your statement here: https://wildlabs.net/discussion/instant-detect-20-and-related-cost)

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discussion

Call for Interview Subjects: Conservation Bioacoustics Methods

Samuel Hertz

14 December 2023 8:47pm

As a part of my ongoing doctoral research in Geography at Royal Holloway University of London, I’m looking for a new round of interview subjects who are willing to share their...

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Stefan Zeeman

15 December 2023 12:19pm

Happy to help Samuel, will send a message

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discussion

Autonomizing Small Mammal Traps

Parker DePond

29 November 2023 6:26pm

If there was a product on the market that was capable of trapping, ‘tagging,’ and releasing an individual without human intervention, would you or your peers invest? Live mammal...

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Lars Holst Hansen

1 December 2023 7:37pm

One thing to keep in mind is that researchers often want or at least would like to get certain metadata on the tagged animals like sex, size, weight, apperent fitness etc. Without these the questions you can ask can get rather limited. Also, it will also often be highly desired to take samples like blood, hair, other tissue e.g.

In addition, there can be cases where it may be better not to tag the animal if it is not the right age group, is too small to carry the tag, seems like it is not in a good shape etc.

I think it will take quite an effort to get automated systems (capture robots) to make these decisions to a degree you can trust.

Cheers,

Lars

Brett Muir

10 December 2023 2:30am

I always thought a tracker that attached like a slap bracelet would be sweet.

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discussion

Wishlist for kit in a field-based Research Station or tech testing space?

Stephanie O'Donnell

27 November 2023 10:41am

Hi wildlabbers!A colleague is looking to crowdsource some advice: what would be on your wishlist for kitting out a field based space for research and tech development?...

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Stephanie O'Donnell

28 November 2023 3:25am

Regine Weckauf over on linkedin: 

'Little to do with research and tech development, but given how hard it is to attract and retain experienced staff to field based positions, I know it makes a difference how nice the space is. Just because it's the "field", shouldn't mean staff living in basic conditions, regardless of how many times we've been told to see it as a badge of honor. If you have the money, put in nice bathrooms, kitchen, living spaces, and private accommodation. Maybe even a nursery? It creates more local employment opportunities and people genuinely want to visit.'

 

Carly Batist

28 November 2023 2:25pm

Love the idea for in-house gear/supplies! It can be SOO difficult to travel with batteries, electronics parts with airline regs, country policies, etc. and shipping recorders/trail cams/etc. gets VERY (prohibitively) pricey in some countries with customs and taxes. Would be great to have an in-country place to source that kind of equipment. 

Housing educational resources related to that tech (in the form of people, print materials, computer tutorials) in-house would be similarly awesome. Particularly/especially in local languages.   

Having in-country wet labs as well helps the eDNA/genetics folks, since sample import/export permitting can be (always seems to be?!) a nightmare, so if you can even just do PCR and/or extractions in-country that helps a ton. 

In terms of overall field-station-wishlist - honestly, just the promise of continued funding and staff. Every field station I've been to or worked at is in a constant search for enough money to get through the next month/year, because the funding comes in the establish a station but then not to maintain it long-term. It's not sexy for a wishlist per se, but boy is it over-looked and much-needed. 

@hikinghack from Dinalab would probably have lots of good insights on this! 

Brett Muir

29 November 2023 7:59pm

My suggestion would probably be a 3D printer and Solder Station with a stock of common components. With those two things you can solve most problems.

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Link

Atos and WWF partner up to leverage technology to support biodiversity conservation

Esther Githinji

27 November 2023 9:32am

Atos & the WWF announced a 3-year strategic partnership to leverage technology to support biodiversity conservation & encourage businesses to decarbonize. 1 of the 4 main initiatives of the partnership is: Atos to develop responsible IT solutions for WWF & its partners.

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Link

What are LoRa and LoRaWAN? | The Things Network

Godwin Mruma

10 November 2023 12:59pm

Useful

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What are LoRa and LoRaWAN?

Welcome to the first chapter of The Things Fundamentals on LoRaWAN. In this section, you’ll learn why LoRaWAN is so awesome, hear about some great LoRaWAN use cases, and learn the difference between LoRa and LoRaWAN. LoRa LoRa is a wireless modulation technique derived from Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) technology. It encodes information on radio waves using chirp pulses - similar to the way dolphins and bats communicate! LoRa modulated transmission is robust against disturbances and can be received across great distances.

The Things Network
Link

Insight; a secure online platform designed for sharing experiences of conservation tool use.

Cleo Graf

7 November 2023 1:01pm

A secure platform designed for those working to monitor & protect natural resources. Insight facilitates sharing experience, knowledge & tools to increase efficiency & effectiveness in conservation. By sharing we reduce time & money spent to find, test, & implement solutions.

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Welcome to Insight

Wildlife crime refers to any illegal activity that involves the taking, trading, or possession of wild animals and plants, or their parts and derivatives.

Insight
event

A SPOTLIGHT ON CUTTING-EDGE BIOMONITORING TECHNOLOGIES

Thomas Luypaert

31 October 2023 9:09am

Join us in our session to feature the latest developments and applications in groundbreaking biomonitoring tech in the tropics

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ANDREA VARELA

15 November 2023 6:10pm

Hello!The Galápagos Islands can be considered Tropics? We do drone monitoring of the marine iguanas with the project Iguanas from Above :)Thanks.Andrea Varela
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article

In case you missed it... (no.2)

Stephanie O'Donnell

27 October 2023 1:20pm

Five #tech4wildlife people, projects and updates that caught my attention this month. This issue is a naturetech, biodiversity startup edition! Featuring a living map of the biodiversity startup scene, is nature data...

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