MIT has been conducting research on the use of GPS-equipped cell phone networks and citizen scientists to collect data about nature. The research conducted by MIT visiting professor Dale Joachim involved cell phones connected to special arrays of directional microphones to play owl sounds and listen to the owl response in order to assess population density. The sensor system turned out to be a good way to monitor owl populations and the broader environment, and took human observers out of the picture.
Despite the success of replacing human observers with a machine network, Joachim feels that the best results might come from the use of both the widespread cell-phone sensor technology and networks of people. People are better equipped to localize the direction of sounds on the ground, and can augment the sensor readings with visual observations.
This research is now being replicated in other locations, including Connecticut, Main and Malaysia, and could soon include Mexico and Russia. The sensor networks will constantly monitor the environment with audio from cell phones, video from remotely-controlled webcams and personal observations from citizen scientists.
The Internet accessible data creates a network of listeners and watchers to make sense of all the data, with distributed teams listening to audio and viewing video when they have time. Listening to to the data currently available has already yielded discoveries of species in habitats where they haven’t been observed before.
“I’m really exploring democratic venues through which large numbers of people can listen in,” Joachim says, “in a way that helps us obtain a broader understanding and appreciation of nature.”
Visit the MIT Media Lab’s Owl Project to learn more.