Earthsky Interviews
Private: How to put an owl on speed dial
November 21, 2007 - Biodiversity
Scientists are trying a new technique to survey owls in the wild, using cellphones.
But Dale Joachim, a professor in MIT’s Media Lab, is an electrical engineer by training, and he finds owls in a different way. He calls them … on a cell phone.
Joachim and a team of biologists go out into the field and place the equipment – a cell phone attached to a cluster of microphones and a speaker to broadcast the owl call. Then they go back to the lab and dial up the cell phones, broadcasting an owl call into the forest.
If an owl answers with its own call, the cell phone picks up the call and transmits the sound of the owl back to the scientists.
If _you_ have a cell phone, you can call the animals in your backyard. But you need a cell phone with an audio jack attached to an amplified microphone. Just set up the phone to answer automatically. And then use another phone to call the cell and the microphone will pick up the sounds of wildlife in your backyard.
A new way to use your free night and weekend minutes!
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A major challenge of the project is getting good reception in the rural areas biologists are trying to survey for owls. Joachim told Earth & Sky that they need at least two bars in order to test the cell phones. It’s also difficult to determine which type of owl answered the call from the phone’s recording. Joachim said the best technique would be a combination of cell phone technology and the physical presence of volunteers to pinpoint the answering owl’s call and location.
Joachim recently presented this technology at the World Economic Forum in China.
*Our thanks to:*
Dale Joachim
Visiting Professor
Media Lab at MIT
Cambridge, MA
“Home page for MIT’s Owl Project”:http://owlproject.media.mit.edu/ where you can view a “Google map”:http://owlproject.media.mit.edu/aviary/ of cell phone locations
“Dale Joachim: The Bird Whisperer”:http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4896