2040 August 25 Newsletter - over 60 birds recognised now

Kia ora and welcome to our August newsletter.

The main news for this month is we have significantly increased the number of birds that the DOC AI Cam recognises from audio recordings. We've also been working hard on another software release that will add new features and fix bugs. We are hoping to release this next month. We've taken a step back on our solar battery pack and are changing the design. Our trap testing has been going well, but we're waiting on parts.

This month I've spent a bit of time in Te Ika-a-Māui, firstly for the Predator Free Sector Hui in Wellington, then my son's 21st, the Sanctuaries of NZ conference (SONZi) and some customer visits.

The Wellington hui included:

• Penny, the Director General of DOC, discussing their commitment to the PF2050 goal and the challenges they are facing.
• ZIP summarising their excellent landscape work.
• A description of how drones are being used in conservation work
• An update on the feral cat toxins & AI trail cameras.
• Lots of lessons learned from from predator free groups across the country.

After the hui, Predator Free Wellington showed us around Mount Victoria. They have removed almost all rats from the reserve. One of their tools is the ZIP H2 Zero toxin dispenser (see photo below). This device uses hydrogen to slowly release the toxin, saving time (and therefore money) by reducing the frequency of re-filling. The same technology is used in the ZIP H2Lure device. It's great to see this innovation being developed and deployed in Aotearoa.

The SONZi conference in Whanganui was my 4th and is like catching up with old friends. This group does amazing work protecting endangered species and making them accessible to the public. The conference includes an excellent science day and updates from the sanctuaries. You can check out the SONZi presentations here.

Kā mihi nui,
Shaun Ryan
2040 Limited, manufacturing partner for The Cacophony Project.

The H2 Zero toxin dispenser from ZIP helping eradicate rats from Mt Victoria

Matthew Hellicar discusses The Cacophony Project for Christchurch Envirohub

DOC AI Cam

More birds

We've now expanded the number of birds we recognise from our audio monitoring to over 60. This is using data from DOC to train our recognition models and from eBird to filter the options geographically. This post lists all the birds we now recognise. We are currently testing some approaches to improve the accuracy.

More tags

We've added some more tags for thermal videos, mainly for Australian animals: real and mythical. We will be adding tree wētā shortly as well, since that is one of the "birds" we recognise.

Bug fixes

We released a bug fix that was causing some videos in high power mode to be washed out. We have also seen some customers unable to connect their Android phones to the camera's Wi-Fi. We're working on a fix for this. In the meantime, this article describes a workaround so you can continue to use your camera.

Upcoming software releases

We are currently testing new software for the DOC AI Cam that includes new features and a significant number of bug fixes, including a bug that causes 10-minute recordings to be made fairly regularly in low power mode.

The release we're testing includes support for reporting on a broader range of battery types and integration with the Celium network.

Manufacturing update

We have built up a small back log of orders, but are expecting parts to arrive next week so we can start fulfilling those.

Our solar solution

We started testing our solar battery pack, but found our camera wasn't working reliably at the voltage we were trying to work with (3.6V). We are redesigning the pack to be ~12V which makes the design a little more complicated and less efficient, however it will be easier to power the trap with the same pack and to power other devices. So at this stage we are redesigning the charging circuits.

We’re still not sure when this will be ready to sell.

The DOC AI Cam now recognises over 60 birds

High Interaction Rate Trap

We've been testing the trap with our latest, 3D parts and are satisfied with their performance. We are now waiting for some more parts to arrive so we can get this version of our trap to customers that want to use it to catch stoats. Our engineer, Lincoln is motorcycling around Nepal for the next month which will further delay the progress here.