Sensors already equip a range of tools to enhance monitoring capacity for conservation. Some of the higher bandwidth technologies, like camera traps and acoustic monitoring systems, have been essential elements of the conservation toolkit for decades, and thus have enough users that we've created dedicated WILDLABS groups to address them. But a whole range of lower bandwidth sensors beyond these core technologies are being increasingly integrated into conservation monitoring systems, and offer rich new insights into the wildlife and ecosystems we're all working to protect. As with many technologies, cost and access have historically been challenges to the adoption of new sensors, but with low-cost and open-source solutions on the rise, we're excited to see what the future of this space holds.
Getting Started with Sensors:
- Watch Shah Selbe's Tech Tutors episode on scaling FieldKit, an open-source conservation sensor toolbox, from a project to a successful conservation tech product.
- Check out our Virtual Meetup about Low-Cost, Open-Source Solutions in conservation tech, including a talk by Alasdair Davies on the Arribada Initiative's work with thermal sensors in early warning systems.
- For a more in-depth introduction, watch the first video in our datalogger mini-series: Freaklabs: How do I get started with Arduino?
In this group, you'll meet others who are using and innovating diverse sensors in their work, discuss ways to make sensors more effective & accessible for conservationists, learn about what sensors are already helping us accomplish in the field, and have the opportunity to ask and answer questions. Join this group to get started!
Header image: Emma Vogel, University of Tromsø
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Purdue University
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Neuroscientist & engineer transitioning to conservation tech. I have experience working with large imaging datasets, pose estimation and positional tracking, and machine learning. Looking to get involved with GIS, remote sensing, and AI for conservation.
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- 17 Groups
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Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
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Botswana Predator Conservation Trust
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- @donovantye
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Savanna Ecologist, Field Station Director and Head of Conservation Tech Projects for Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS).
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- 14 Groups
Xerius Tracking
Concerned by wildlife protection and advanced technologies
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Wild Me
- 1 Resources
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Key Conservation
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Adventure Scientists is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips scientists and researchers with high-quality data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental challenges around the world.
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- @DanielHugelmann
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Hi, I'm the co-founder of OceanLabs Seychelles. We design and build environmental and marine remote sensing devices for conservation NGOs. As an engineer and avid diver, with a love for the environment, connecting conservation and technology was the natural thing to do!
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Conservify is seeking a hands-on Senior Product and Production Manager with strong interpersonal and organizational skills to remotely lead a small seasoned team of thinkers, designers and engineers who are shaping the...
9 December 2022
a technology-led solution to understanding the honeybees of the wasp world
8 December 2022
Apply now for $2,500–$15,000 USD grants for early-stage ideas or projects that address global challenges.
4 October 2022
The device could help scientists explore unknown regions of the ocean, track pollution, or monitor the effects of climate change.
26 September 2022
This paper released by the World Economic Forum and the SPACES coalition shows how businesses can embrace the use of spatial intelligence for action on nature and climate. How can we make sure businesses apply the...
23 September 2022
This role will be employed under Osa Conservation's Movement Ecology Program. Broadly, the project aims to develop and use novel animal tracking technology to increase our understanding of the movement ecology of...
22 September 2022
Careers
The Senior Conservation Technology Specialist will be responsible for providing technical advice and capacity development to GWP project teams on conservation technology, distilling challenges and lessons from project...
22 September 2022
Boost cons tech capacity at an international NGO! Fauna & Flora International is offering a paid three-month internship to consolidate and share best practices for the application of emerging hardware and software...
26 August 2022
Article
An update on Ceres Tags products that are being used in conservation
22 August 2022
Are you interested in joining a team dedicated to changing how conservation is conducted around the world by developing new genetic technologies for conservation, and being part of the new wave of scientists paving a...
15 August 2022
The Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing (MaRRS) Lab at Duke University seeks a highly motivated UAS pilot and geospatial analyst to support the ongoing development of new and existing research and conservation programs,...
10 August 2022
The Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing (MaRRS) Lab at Duke University seeks a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to support the ongoing development of new and existing research and conservation programs, both...
10 August 2022
September 2023
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi Adam, My name is Nicole, I work at Frontier Labs - we also make bioacoustic recorders (BARs) and are based in Brisbane, Australia. Yay for Australian tech! We have been... |
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Sensors | 2 years 8 months ago | |
Would certainly be cool to see a tutorial on this! Looking forward to that! |
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Marine Conservation, Sensors | 2 years 8 months ago | |
Almost done with the trap alarms. I added an additional buzzer (with internal circuitry) to get more noise. The added benefit is that the slightly different tunes creates... |
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Sensors | 3 years ago | |
Hi Barry, I am tinkering with similar edge devices and aspirations! I recently acquired the Jetson Nano to start testing some aspects of the BearID Project software pipeline.... |
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Connectivity, Sensors | 3 years 2 months ago | |
Thanks for the paper Harold, this looks like a possibility. Especially if there's a way to make bespoke detectors |
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Sensors | 3 years 2 months ago | |
Hi everyone, I'm building some small audio attachments to pop onto Vectronics collars. Does anyone have dummy or... |
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Sensors | 3 years 3 months ago | |
Really interesting chat. I was looking at this "eTape" to measure inundation on marine turtle nests. https://www.adafruit.com/product/463 Will give you water presence... |
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Sensors | 3 years 6 months ago | |
Have you ever wanted to get a sample from the top of a tree, without having to climb it or shoot it out with a shotgun? Would it... |
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Sensors | 3 years 7 months ago | |
Hello Rob, I have seen the bracelet style used on large mammals with mixed success and failure. The main considerations are terrain the animal uses, and fitting the bracelet... |
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Sensors | 3 years 7 months ago | |
Amazing stuff Andrew! The dips in light idea made me think of exoplanet hunting straight away! Such a cool idea!! |
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Sensors | 3 years 7 months ago | |
Hi Akiba No worries, thanks for responding! I'd love to delve into more detail on this once the new series has started and I have an idea of the tools and kit required!... |
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Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 3 years 9 months ago | |
Hi Maxine, There are pros and cons to switching regulators and linear regulators. Linear regulators "throw away" the excess voltage in order to maintain a... |
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Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 3 years 9 months ago |
How do I build bespoke conservation technology?
20 July 2020 12:00am
Training Opportunity: Durrell Conservation Academy
16 July 2020 12:00am
How do I repair my camera traps?
13 July 2020 12:00am
Kākāpō Dreaming: A Wildlife Drones Adventure
8 July 2020 12:00am
Era of the Condor: A Species' Future in Recovery (Part 3)
2 July 2020 12:00am
Era of the Condor: A Species' Future in Recovery (Part 2)
25 June 2020 12:00am
Seeking research projects related to monitoring wildlife behavior
20 June 2020 3:34pm
23 June 2020 1:56am
I'd love to chat more! I'll be reaching out soon!
From Autonomous Cars to Aqualink: Developing a Reef Monitoring System
9 June 2020 12:00am
Event: Arm’s AI Virtual Tech Sessions
9 June 2020 12:00am
Innovator Interview: Hack the Poacher
4 June 2020 12:00am
Webinar: The Next Generation Of Animal Telemetry
1 June 2020 12:00am
Competition: 2020 Hackaday Prize
26 May 2020 12:00am
Grassroots Innovations for Wildlife Conservation
19 May 2020 12:00am
WILDLABS Tech Tutors: Season One
19 May 2020 12:00am
12th International Forum on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing
14 May 2020 12:00am
sound loop devise
26 April 2020 1:29pm
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.
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...
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:)
Era of the Condor: A Species' Future in Recovery
5 May 2020 12:00am
Notification systems for trap activation
10 January 2019 5:30am
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
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?
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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.
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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.
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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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4 May 2020 5:01am
Please see my edits above
Competition: iWildCam 2020
4 May 2020 12:00am
Mesh Powered Software Defined Radios
2 May 2020 7:13am
Call for Submissions – Arm Research Summit 2020
24 April 2020 12:00am
Talking Tracking with Xerius
23 April 2020 12:00am
#FieldKit50: Earth Day Giveaway
22 April 2020 12:00am
WILDLABS Tech Hub: WWF PandaSat
13 April 2020 12:00am
Locally-Brewed Conservation Technology from a Small Town in North Bengal
10 April 2020 12:00am
Connecting to MBARI's Deep-Sea Instruments
31 March 2020 12:00am
WILDLABS Community Call Recording: Rainforest X-PRIZE
30 March 2020 12:00am
Virtual Field Trip: Conservation Technology with Shah Selbe
24 March 2020 12:00am
Online Workshop: Conservation Technology
23 March 2020 12:00am
Enter the Zooniverse: Try Citizen Science for Yourself!
18 March 2020 12:00am
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 ([email protected]).