The motion-activated cameras, built by Cambridge Consultants, are placed in areas such as watering holes, and can currently upload up to 30 photos a day.
Photo: Cambridge Consultants

[Via Satellite 09-19-2013] According to Cambridge Consultants, a product development firm, one rhino is killed every 11 hours in Africa due to the demand for products made from its horns. Currently, there are only 539 wild rhinos in Kenya – compared with the 20,000 that existed in 1969. Due to these alarming numbers, Cambridge Consultants has joined the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to protect rare and endangered species across the world using the capabilities of a range of technologies that include Iridium’s satellite network and the Raspberry Pi micro-computer, a credit-card sized computer created to expand access to technology in schools.

The Instant Wild project, which recently won 500,000 pounds ($798,000) through a Global Impact Award from Google earlier this year, beams near-real-time images of animals from remote areas of Africa, the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the United States from new satellite-connected and motion-triggered cameras. The Instant Wild mobile app allows users anywhere in the world to view the photos and immediately identify the animals by cross-checking with the field guide provided in the app. Simultaneously, the system provides early warning of illegal poaching activity, as well as evidence for prosecutions, according to Cambridge Consultants.

The idea for this project was driven by ZSL’s need for greater visibility of the animals and habitats that they conserve. Since they lacked the technology capabilities to realize the system, ZSL sought a technology partner to allow them to achieve their goal, explained Richard Traherne, head of wireless for Cambridge Consultants in an exclusive interview with Via Satellite. “We heard about the need through a presentation that ZSL gave at a Raspberry Pi ‘jam’ and introduced ourselves. Over and above the specific design improvements we were able to provide we also provide, as Iridium’s virtual R&D team for its subscriber products, unique expertise to incorporate an Iridium backhaul into the system,” Traherne said.

“Cambridge Consultants believes strongly in the goals of the project and was quick to demonstrate interest and commitment in making it happen. This included a certain amount of investment that it made itself in exploring possible options and in developing intellectual property that would benefit the project,” he added.

There were several challenges that the development team had to overcome, explained Jonathan Pallant, senior engineer at Cambridge Consultants, in a recent video. One such challenge was determining the best way to sustain battery life for the equipment. However, these challenges were conquered, Traherne explained.

“In order to prolong battery life, a central node was introduced into the system architecture, to which the cameras transmit their images. This allows a network of cameras to be deployed over an area that can work at a lower power consumption; only needing to transmit images up to three hundred feet to the central node. The central node can be located in a convenient discreet place which allows it to have a larger battery (or solar panel option),” Traherne said. “This arrangement not only provides greater coverage with superior battery life performance, but also the ability to perform sensing in the future that relies on a geographically distributed network. In addition, we employed power saving techniques to minimize the power consumption of the components used, including a sleep mode for a portion of the circuitry that dramatically extends battery life between each period of activity.”

Additionally, the team was faced with the challenge of transmitting images in almost real time. ZSL required the ability to deploy the system in the remotest regions and without complicated setup, or antenna orientation as might be required for a GEO system, said Traherne. Images are currently motion triggered, although other detection mechanisms may be included in the future. The images are transmitted within a couple of seconds to the central node and then over the Iridium satellite network to ZSL’s servers within two minutes, he added.

“The Iridium satellite network offers a unique advantage in this respect. Being the only commercial satellite system with full coverage of the globe, images can be transmitted over their LEO system from any location on the planet. ZSL take comfort from the fact that Iridium provides a continuous canopy of 66 satellites overhead that move relative to the Earth’s surface, maximizing the opportunity for the central node to transmit the image out if it has even the barest visibility of the sky,” Traherne said.

In addition to these challenges, the team had to develop a way to capture images in complete darkness without revealing the location of the equipment to potential poachers or scare the animals. Instead of using white light, the cameras use a proprietary infrared flash system that was developed by Cambridge Consultants to conceal the equipment from animals and would-be poachers, according to Traherne. “The system provides a powerful 10W flash power which is capable of providing excellent illumination of image targets. We had to incorporate an infrared filter to ensure that daylight pictures are not affected, so that performance is good in both day and night situations,” he said.

Furthermore, the caseworks and mechanical design were modified to provide environmental and mechanical ruggedness, keeping the equipment safe from animals and protecting the animals from the equipment. Traherne explained the design was based on commercially off-the-shelf components, which were carefully modified to provide the environmental robustness required. “One of the greatest animal threats could be the jaws of a hyena – not a design goal that we’d encountered often before! The design also introduced the concept of “skins” that can be added to camouflage the cameras to suit their specific environment,” he said.

Although the system has not caught poachers to date, park authorities are excited about its possibilities and are confident that it will play a vital role in animal preservation, according to Traherne. The Instant Wild system has already identified the existence of an animal in a region where it was previously thought to be extinct: a mountain mouse deer in Sri Lanka.

Currently, the system has undergone initial testing successfully at Whipsnade Zoo in the United Kingdom and Kenya. Further trials of approximately 100 units will occur in Kenya at the turn of this year, which will complete the initial trials, prior to further rollout to around 250 next year, according to Traherne. Looking forward, planned regions include the remainder of Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Himalaya and the South Pole. The trials are then expected to attract interest from other groups involved in animal conservation and remote monitoring that will approach ZSL for further systems and other forms of collaboration, Traherne said.