Hey everyone! 👋
I wanted to share a camera solution from Enlaps that might complement the traditional camera traps you’re using for wildlife monitoring. While camera traps are great for capturing animal movements, our Tikee cameras are particularly suited for long-term monitoring of landscapes and vegetation—especially under and above the canopy.
Tikee offers 7360x2650 pixel resolution, with a 220° horizontal field of view and solar-powered autonomy. Plus, with LTE (4G) connectivity, it’s perfect for setting up in remote areas without needing constant maintenance. This could be super valuable for tracking environmental changes, plant phenology, or landscape shifts across seasons.
Pairing Tikee with your existing camera traps can help you monitor not only the wildlife but also the vegetation and ecosystems that support them. 🌿🌍
Curious to know if anyone’s tried a similar approach or has thoughts on how this might be useful!
Cheers,
Adrien @ Enlaps

btw, thanks @Sara Beery for inviting me to join this list during eccv24! 🙏

Any current recommendations for the best camera trap hardware? I would prefer something open source but it doesn't have to be.

Hi @Keenan Johnson, I was waiting for someone more qualified to answer this but I can give some info.

Camera traps made by Reconyx, Browning, Bushnell are still the heavy hitters among many wildlife biologists, at least the ones I interact with. They've got their drawbacks, but they're generally quite reliable, with Reconyx generally being the "highest end" camera trap.

Unfortunately, there are no widely adopted open source options at the moment. Most commercially available camera traps rely on ASIC hardware and everything is quite proprietary. Many have tried to remedy this with custom open source solutions (I have a long term project related to this). You'll find a plethora of Raspi based solutions, but they won't have the battery life or trigger time needed for most studies. Andrew Quitmeyer's MothBox is probably the best version of this I have seen, though it's primarily targeted at insect studies (and does a good job at that!).

I've also seen some solutions proposed based on the OpenMV camera system, which seem a bit more promising, but still untested. There are some other small production camera traps that exist, but I know less about them. I recently learned about these smart cameras, which use a cool low-power LiDAR instead of classical PIR sensing https://fielddata.tech/.

CXL's Sentinel is now being field tested, and Microsoft announced their Sparrow project, both of which are super impressive. But I dont think they're open source or purchasable at the moment.

If you let me know what you're trying to work on, I might be able to offer some more specific advice!

Field Data Services - Science Ready Smart Cameras ™️

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Science Ready Smart Cameras ™️ Re-invented trail camera tech enabling informed land management decisions with real-time data We offer tools for insects, fish, reptiles and other hard-to-track scenarios. Our technology can handle a range of scenarios, including inside bird boxes and small, cold-blooded animals underwater. Continuous data logging of motion, microclimate weather and GPS. Run

Original URL: https://fielddata.tech/