2040 Newsletter

Manufacturing partner for The Cacophony Project

Kia ora and welcome to our July newsletter.

This month we've got more updates to improve the modem performance on the DOC AI Cam, enhancements to using the AI on the camera, and improved bird recognition. We continue to make good progress on our solar and slow progress on our trap.

Our cameras featured on the front page of the Timaru Herald after Predator Free Timaru received 6 cameras thanks to the efforts of Timaru Rotary

A quick reminder to check the screws on the back of your camera are tight after you've had the back off to insert a SIM card. A couple of cameras have recently had water damage from this oversight (I might have been responsible for one of those). The rubber seal should be just poking out between the two halves of the case. This video demonstrates inserting a SIM in the DOC AI Cam.

This month I spoke at the Hurunui Biodiversity Trust trapping workshop in Culverden. It was fantastic to meet everyone, hear about their ambitious plans and to share what we're doing. There are a number of cameras starting to be used in the area to help with their monitoring goals. Please let me know if you'd like someone to speak to your group about The Cacophony Project.

In August I'm exhibiting at the Predator Free New Zealand Sector Hui in Wellington on the 7th, and attending the Sanctuaries of New Zealand workshop in Whanganui on the 12-14th.

I'd like to acknowledge the passing of Tim Higham this month. Tim made a career of telling conservation stories and was most recently with Tū Mai Taonga. I only met Tim once when I visited Aotea/Great Barrier Island for a Pestivle. When we were chatting in the pub we worked out our daughters were both at Otago University, texted them and found they were friends and at a pub in Dunedin together. We swapped selfies that were quite a contrast. My heartfelt condolences go out to Tim's whanau and the Aotea community.

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

Predator Free Timaru members Alice Brice, and Tim Exton receive DOC AI cameras from Rotary of Timaru members Lynette and Lionel Wilson at the Scenic Reserve

An oldie, but a goodie: here's a goose chasing wallabies at Willowbank Park

DOC AI Cam

Software updates

This month we have made some more software updates on the DOC AI Cam. The main changes have been the way the modem works, to improve connectivity in marginal reception. From what we can see, the changes have resulted in some improvement. We still have some ideas on how to improve this further.

We've also made some improvements to the AI on the camera. This includes a new model that is faster and more accurate, and we've simplified the setup via the Cacophony Sidekick app.

The other major change we've made is we've updated our bird recognition algorithm and it seems to be working much better. This has evolved over the years. Our initial model could only recognise morepork and it did a good job, then we expanded it to cover birds on Norfolk Island. When we expanded it to cover more NZ birds we started mis-identifying birds. For example, saying there were riflemen in places where there are none. We addressed this, using the data from eBird to only ID birds that are expected to be found in your area. However, the algorithm was a little too conservative, labelling most calls simply as bird.

The new algorithm seems to be much better, but does still make mistakes, especially for birds that aren't in its list. For some reason my local ducks are being tagged as Tui. The good news is we are about to test a much larger group of about 60 birds that should start to address this. Please let us know how it's working for you.

Upcoming software releases

As well as the expanded bird list we are working on further improvements to the thermal recordings. The most significant of these is fixing a bug that causes 10-minute recordings to be made fairly regularly.

We are also working on support for reporting on a broader range of battery types and we have the software for integrating with the Celium network ready to go.

Manufacturing update

We are pretty much caught up on our backlog of orders, but are waiting on parts for our next batch of cameras. These are a few weeks away.

Our solar solution

We have received the latest PCBs for our solar battery pack and they have passed our initial testing. We have now added waterproofing and will start field testing shortly.

At this stage we’re still not sure when this will be ready to sell.

A bellbird automatically identified in Akaroa

The latest solar battery pack that we are about to field test

High Interaction Rate Trap

We have received 3D parts for the trap spool mechanism that are printed using nylon. These have more precision and are more robust than the parts we had been printing ourselves.

We have assembled the trap with these parts and have started testing their operation.