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Are there any "citizen science" initiatives where I can buy a device like this and upload my insect counts to some database that's useful for researchers? I ha

Are there any "citizen science" initiatives where I can buy a device like this and upload my insect counts to some database that's useful for researchers? I have been interested in setting up some things like home weather monitoring, ADS-B, streaming webcams for wildlife, etc. anyway so this would be a fun item to add to that.

gibspaulding 2y ago
Cornell is doing something along those lines for birds using audio recordings. It’s just a smartphone app though - https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/sound-id/ https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/sound-id/
- beardyw 2y ago
  I was using it today, and any day when there are birds around. It correctly identifies birds you can barely hear. It's become as useful as binoculars to me. A great free app.
- dekhn 2y ago
  they also release the model. I've recorded hours of audio outside my house and run it through the model on my desktop with GPU.
  - abroadwin 2y ago
    Are they using birdnet or something else?
    - dekhn 2y ago
      sorry, yes, I'm referring to birdnet.
- buescher 2y ago
  I have a pi running birdnet-pi on my porch. https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi
- adolph 2y ago
  Here is the related hardware widget. $200 with a $59/year service for alerts etc. https://haikubox.com/ https://haikubox.com/
  - adolph 2y ago
    Something of note that creators like that of Mothbox might find interesting (if they didn't already know), Haikubox was awarded about $1m from the NSF: SBIR Phase II: Building a Nature Monitoring Network for Birds [0]. More about the awarding NSF "directorate" here [1]. 0. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2135664&HistoricalAwards=false https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2135664&His... 1. https://new.nsf.gov/tip/latest https://new.nsf.gov/tip/latest
    - hikinghack 2y ago
      Oh thanks for sharing this!
aeturnum 2y ago
I think the air gradient folks do some collaboration and it's possible you could get your sensors linked into a bigger net by contacting them: https://www.airgradient.com/research/ https://www.airgradient.com/research/ Edit: Also MIT did this recently: https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-pollution-anywhere-0316 https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-po...
Modified3019 2y ago
On a related note, I wish there was some sort of software system where I could ID weeds and insects with photos and locations at various levels of confidence (“possibly”, “probably”, keyed out, genetic testing) at different taxonomic levels and both self host my results while also automatically contributing to a larger project. There are various projects out there (like plantnet) but I don’t want to burn massive personal effort curating in a system that isn’t my own first and foremost, due to inevitable enshittification. At the same time, I want others to benefit from what I do, in particular local growers and naturalists. Things like PlantNet also tend to be “majority vote” on ID, meaning a whole lot is often close, but wrong. For example there is a regional plant specific to my area called Willamette Navarretia. Those that don’t realize this will easily confuse it with very similar looking species found most elsewhere in the western US, and last I checked it wasn’t in PlantNet. https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/PlantConservation/SiteAssets/Pages/AboutThePlants/NavarretiaWillamettensisProfile.pdf https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/PlantConservation/SiteAs... https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/165663-Navarretia-willamettensis https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/165663-Navarretia-willamett...
- doodlebugging 2y ago
  Have you tried iNaturalist? [0] Insects, animals, plants, etc get posted from all over the world for ID. [0] https://www.inaturalist.org/ https://www.inaturalist.org/ I post lots of photos of things I find locally and experts step in and help ID the subjects when I don't know what I'm seeing. I also have a couple of AudioMoths for recording local sounds including birds, insects, etc. Very high quality units at a reasonable price. I have seen this Mothbox posted a couple of times and almost bought one since I know I have tons of moths attracted to my native plants out here, but the price is a sticking point right now. I think something like this combined with an AudioMoth and some trail cams would be a good local wildlife monitor setup.
  - Modified3019 2y ago
    edit so it turns out, at least a significant part of inaturalist is in fact open source of some kind. I never realized, I’ll have to look into this more. I appreciate you getting me to take a second look https://github.com/inaturalist https://github.com/inaturalist This may be exactly what I need: https://www.inaturalist.org/sites/network https://www.inaturalist.org/sites/network
r2oaa2f83jfpa3 2y ago
Not counts, but you can upload the images to https://inaturalist.org https://inaturalist.org. Most of the recent conservation research papers use iNaturalist data.

gibspaulding 2y ago

Cornell is doing something along those lines for birds using audio recordings. It’s just a smartphone app though - https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/sound-id/ https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/sound-id/

beardyw 2y ago
I was using it today, and any day when there are birds around. It correctly identifies birds you can barely hear. It's become as useful as binoculars to me. A great free app.
dekhn 2y ago
they also release the model. I've recorded hours of audio outside my house and run it through the model on my desktop with GPU.
- abroadwin 2y ago
  Are they using birdnet or something else?
  - dekhn 2y ago
    sorry, yes, I'm referring to birdnet.
buescher 2y ago
I have a pi running birdnet-pi on my porch. https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi https://www.birdweather.com/birdnetpi
adolph 2y ago
Here is the related hardware widget. $200 with a $59/year service for alerts etc. https://haikubox.com/ https://haikubox.com/
- adolph 2y ago
  Something of note that creators like that of Mothbox might find interesting (if they didn't already know), Haikubox was awarded about $1m from the NSF: SBIR Phase II: Building a Nature Monitoring Network for Birds [0]. More about the awarding NSF "directorate" here [1]. 0. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2135664&HistoricalAwards=false https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2135664&His... 1. https://new.nsf.gov/tip/latest https://new.nsf.gov/tip/latest
  - hikinghack 2y ago
    Oh thanks for sharing this!

aeturnum 2y ago

I think the air gradient folks do some collaboration and it's possible you could get your sensors linked into a bigger net by contacting them: https://www.airgradient.com/research/ https://www.airgradient.com/research/ Edit: Also MIT did this recently: https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-pollution-anywhere-0316 https://news.mit.edu/2023/low-cost-device-can-measure-air-po...

Modified3019 2y ago

On a related note, I wish there was some sort of software system where I could ID weeds and insects with photos and locations at various levels of confidence (“possibly”, “probably”, keyed out, genetic testing) at different taxonomic levels and both self host my results while also automatically contributing to a larger project. There are various projects out there (like plantnet) but I don’t want to burn massive personal effort curating in a system that isn’t my own first and foremost, due to inevitable enshittification. At the same time, I want others to benefit from what I do, in particular local growers and naturalists. Things like PlantNet also tend to be “majority vote” on ID, meaning a whole lot is often close, but wrong. For example there is a regional plant specific to my area called Willamette Navarretia. Those that don’t realize this will easily confuse it with very similar looking species found most elsewhere in the western US, and last I checked it wasn’t in PlantNet. https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/PlantConservation/SiteAssets/Pages/AboutThePlants/NavarretiaWillamettensisProfile.pdf https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/PlantConservation/SiteAs... https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/165663-Navarretia-willamettensis https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/165663-Navarretia-willamett...

doodlebugging 2y ago
Have you tried iNaturalist? [0] Insects, animals, plants, etc get posted from all over the world for ID. [0] https://www.inaturalist.org/ https://www.inaturalist.org/ I post lots of photos of things I find locally and experts step in and help ID the subjects when I don't know what I'm seeing. I also have a couple of AudioMoths for recording local sounds including birds, insects, etc. Very high quality units at a reasonable price. I have seen this Mothbox posted a couple of times and almost bought one since I know I have tons of moths attracted to my native plants out here, but the price is a sticking point right now. I think something like this combined with an AudioMoth and some trail cams would be a good local wildlife monitor setup.
- Modified3019 2y ago
  edit so it turns out, at least a significant part of inaturalist is in fact open source of some kind. I never realized, I’ll have to look into this more. I appreciate you getting me to take a second look https://github.com/inaturalist https://github.com/inaturalist This may be exactly what I need: https://www.inaturalist.org/sites/network https://www.inaturalist.org/sites/network

r2oaa2f83jfpa3 2y ago

Not counts, but you can upload the images to https://inaturalist.org https://inaturalist.org. Most of the recent conservation research papers use iNaturalist data.