The loss of biodiversity poses a great threat to humankind, and not only because we will lose "cool" animals like elephants or ice bears. With every animal species going extint, a part of an ecosystem gets lost and other species find that they are missing an element necessary to their life cycle. The complex interplay between plant and animals species is far from being understood completely. Thus, it is crucial that for the animals for which we do know the importance in an ecosystem, all the tools are used to preserve them.
And since we humans love spying on each other so much, we decided to do the same with animals. But jokes aside, the UK-based company Open Acoustic Devices works to design, support and deploy open-source acoustic hardware and software for its users. Their main product is AudioMoth, which has been used in multiple applications. Its use cases range from automating the search for an elusive insect species, monitoring poaching by gunshot and listening for ultrasonic bat calls.
Concretely, scientists describe it as a "low-cost, small, full-spectrum alternative" to convential (and expensive) acoustic monitoring equipment. AudioMoth is a low-cost, full-spectrum acoustic logger. It is much more cost efficient than other devices because it uses the same microphones used in smartphones, which thanks to their mass-production are comparably cheap. Just like its namesake the moth, AudioMoth can listen at audible frequencies as well as into ultrasonic frequencies. It is capable of recording uncompressed audio to microSD card at rates from 8,000 to 384,000 samples per second and can be converted into a full-spectrum USB microphone. In fact, it can be set to record only sounds above, under or within a certain frequency (range). The standard AudioMoth measures 58 x 48 x 15 mm, and the smaller version, μMoth, only 32 x 24mm! Additionally, different modules can be plugged into the device, like GPS abled ones to know where the device is at all times or other modules to enable wireless transmission of data.
The venture's goal is to improve the accessibility and usability of acoustic technology for conservation using open-science. But how does this exactly help conservation? Environmental sound is a powerful data source for investigating ecosystem health, the state of a particular animal species or even the illegal disruption e.g. through poachers or illegal loggers. And automating biodiversity sampling by leaving the AudioMoth or similar devices around for a certain period can enable ecologists to focus on more important tasks than leaving expensive devices out in nature and retrieving them shortly after. In fact, depending on whether the device record continuously or in intervals and especially depending on the frequency it is set to, the AudioMoth's battery can last for up to a year (when it needs to record low frequencies such as gunshots). However, when recording ultrasonic frequencies such as bat sounds (a frequent use case for the AudioMoth) the battery needs to be recharged every few weeks.
AudioMoth has already gained considerable sucess with over 30.000 units spread over 5 continents and used by Master/ PhD students, conservation NGOs and forest managers like rangers.
But AudioMoth's usefulness extends beyond being a convenient device recording audio data. It also transmits this data via a wireless transmission to the researchers that can analyze it with machine learning software to filter out the actually relevant data from the noise.
What is the impact of this?
This solution enables researchers gather and analyze data that can help them in creating the best insights that can be used for conservation efforts.
What can you do?
As you might have guessed, the use cases for the AudioMoth are for a rather specific audience, so if you are not active in conservation or forest management you will probably not need the AudioMoth, but hey, now you know where to go in case you switch careers!
If you are interested in how digital innovations can help conservation efforts, check out Green Mirror's other articles on conservation here.
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