Maybe placing the device outside would help.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Robot watches out for rare bird — Everyone is totally stoked over the ivory-billed woodpecker. The thing must be delicious!
Robot ornithologists have joined the search for a rare species of bird. The automated birdwatcher stands in a US wildlife reserve in Arkansas, scanning the skies for a glimpse of the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker. The bird was once thought to be extinct, but potential sightings in the area in 2004 renewed the search.
The system uses two video cameras to capture continuous images of the sky that are scrutinised for evidence of bird life by sophisticated software. Any shot that it does not believe contains a bird is discarded.
“It’s been running for three months continuously now and it only keeps one image in every 10,000 it collects,” said Dr Ken Goldberg of the University of California, Berkeley, who developed the system.
found by Craig Menefee
Their heyday may be over, but there are still a LOT of webcams streaming images onto the net. This seems like a next-generation webcam, with its image-filtering intelligence. Devices like this could be used to monitor and do research on wildlife in any number of interesting ways, not just to locate headline-grabbing woodpeckers. If this project generates some extremely interesting pics (and how could it not?), it could be only the first of many.
Much better use for the technology than monitoring urban street corners.
I would setup a sound locator, and take Pics of What ever is Chipping at wood, insted of just wondering the clouds..
I wonder if they can use those at the borders?
1 in 1000, sounds like 1 for 1 replacement for border patrol agents.
They are looking for the bird because it’s sudden supposed sighting could spell the end of a road project(i believe) that is much needed by the locals, but would go through a section of the wild life preserve. If the bird really is still among the living, the road is out.