We have exciting updates to share with you in this newsletter. The biggest news is that theDepartment of Conservation (DOC) are funding The Cacophony Projectto develop a low cost, low power version of the thermal camera. They are also funding the expansion of our monitoring platform to include trail camera footage.
We have significantly improved our bird monitoring platform, including the ability to recognise many more birds and we have started work on a new version of the bird monitor hardware.
Exciting news: DOC has funded a new version of our thermal camera. At just $1300 ex GST this is priced at less than half the original cost of old thermal camera. The Cacophony Project have been able to achieve this by carefully engineering the camera to reduce the labour required to manufacture it and by replacing some of the more expensive components.
While doing this they have also been able to significantly reduce the power usage and increase the functionality. We are aiming to use less than one third of the power of the existing cameras, significantly expanding battery life. It will also have a more appealing form factor, built-in GPS, better mounting options, lower cost & more robust battery, built in speaker/communications port, a microphone and a multi-coloured status light.
These cameras are being field tested now and areavailable for pre-order. I am hoping to start manufacturing the first run of these cameras next month (beware I suffer from extreme optimism). The first of these have already sold. Get in quick to avoid delays. We are still developing the low power capability, and plan to make that available via a software update.
We will offer an upgrade deal for customers that have bought the older cameras.
We can now automatically recognise 22 birds/sounds: bellbird, black noddy, blackbird, crimson rosella, fantail, frog, grey warbler, house sparrow, insect, generic noise, Norfolk gerygone, Norfolk robin, rifleman, rooster, silvereye, sooty tern, sparrow, white tern, human, kiwi, morepork, whistler and generic bird calls. We are still assessing the quality of our recognition algorithms. There is some more detailhere about the new bird recognition capabilities.
Many thanks to the people that have been tagging bird calls that have made this possible. We now have over 35,000 tags.
There have also been various improvements to the interface for listening to and tagging bird calls. We are continuing to work on this. Read the details about theimprovements to the bird monitor
We have stopped selling the existing bird monitor because we are unable to source the low cost Android phones it uses. We are working a new version that will be cheaper, lower power, and more robust. In the meantime there other bird monitors available, including the open-sourceaudio mothandbuggrecorders. DOC are also manufacturing theirAR4 recorderagain after struggling to get parts during COVID. The main difference between our bird monitor and these is it will include connectivity, solar, and seamless integration into our ever expanding bird recognition algorithms.
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2040 Ltd is a social enterprise whose mission is to eradicate predators from NZ by manufacturing and selling open source technology developed by The Cacophony Project.