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I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

jasontucker.blog

141–150 of 197 posts

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#141

The documentary 'Listers ' (about two brothers who go all in on birding for a year) on YouTube is so hilarious and got me into birding (and using Merlin) this year. Highly recommend.

Really enjoyed it as well. I watched so many documentaries in college (20-25 years ago) and it really harkens back to a 90s/early00’s style documentary, in a fun way.

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#142
Why wouldn’t Ring integrate this into their cameras or at least provide a “premium” device that includes it? Seems like a marketing no brainer!

Security is all about trade offs and if the public perceives they are getting additional benefits from their devices then the trade off over surveillance becomes less so.

I’m actually surprised Flock hasn’t done it to their cameras already. “Stop cutting down our bird monitoring devices! We are doing good science!” If they integrated actual positive benefits to their actions then society pushes back less

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#143
post #22

Btw, Merlin Bird ID app by Cornell University is so good that I got some people interested that weren't into that topic at all.

But a warning for novice birders: Merlin's sound ID feature produces a lot of false positives.

Indeed - background noise will tend to lead to a lot more false positives, but you should use it as a guide rather than inherently trusting results. Same goes for using BirdNET-go and other models, though these do allow you to be very strict with detections and reduce false positives more.

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#144
> I got a notification from Home Assistant that a fart was detected in the driveway. My neighbor was walking by my house on his nightly walk and ripped one as he passed by the driveway and the fart was detected.

I'd have to disable notifications for this in my neighbourhood to avoid alert fatigue.

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#145
I just wonder, wouldn't ornithologists be interested in a system in where people voluntarily upload bird photos from their camera, helping them with bird spitting? They do that by hand already, after all. Think something like FlightRadar and crowd-sourced ADB-S info?

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#149
post #148

This is a lot more wholesome than my project. I detect birds and automatically spray them with a sprinkler to keep away from pool area. code: https://github.com/mattsahn/bird-away Writeup: https://mattsahn.github.io/bird-away-blog/

I guess you can combine it? Identify what the bird was you sprayed away ..

Re: I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

#150
post #148

This is a lot more wholesome than my project. I detect birds and automatically spray them with a sprinkler to keep away from pool area. code: https://github.com/mattsahn/bird-away Writeup: https://mattsahn.github.io/bird-away-blog/

I've been wanting to do something like this to stop cats shitting on my grass for ages, will have a look at this, thanks.
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