Trekking up a mountain on our last vacation, we came across a bird watcher who had been vainly searching for a local bird species for days. Shortly after we left him, we came across one of the birds by chance, flitting from tree to tree, and calling its distinctive call. (I have to thank our guide for pointing the bird out - I never would have seen it on my own.)
Now, gunshot triangulation devices are a must for every urban police force or counter-insurgency team, automatically identifying and pinpointing gunshots, so security forces can quickly surround the culprit. (See link.)
So, my proposal is to take this system, and adapt it for bird watchers. Ten or twenty microphones, linked by radio and using GPS to track their own locations, are spread out in a large grid by the bird spotter, documentarian, or poacher. Oh, wait a minute, maybe we won't sell the things to poachers.
Anyway, the central computer unit will listen for the distinctive whistles of birds, and triangulate the positions of bird calls on a map, including height off the ground. If the calls in question are distinctive enough, it will even identify the bird(s).
While it will still require human intervention to actually spot the birds, of course, this will pin down their location to a three dimensional box small enough for even the squiffiest-eyed spotter to find them. Until the bird flies off, of course.
The microphones are fluorescent orange and have a flashing light and beeper that can be triggered remotely, to aid in finding them again, once the birding session is done.-- DrCurry, Feb 07 2008 Shot Spotter http://science.hows...com/shotspotter.htmPolice technology [DrCurry, Feb 07 2008] why is mine in other: biology? twitching_20aid_20for_20beginners [po, Feb 07 2008] Suggested category: Business: Call Center(er)-- imaginality, Feb 07 2008 bs: sorry, I should have explained: I was assuming the microphones themselves would be at different heights, due to variations in ground topography, thus allowing triangulation by height as well. (Much the same way GPS works, in fact, but using sound instead of radio waves.)
Oh, and it looks like some helpful admin has stuck us in the garden.-- DrCurry, Feb 07 2008 I really like this idea! I also like the height clarification.
Nature microphones (of the quality able to pick out and pick up bird calls) tend to be expensive. Directional, too (even if that's the case, it doesn't harm the idea). If you have plenty of microphones, knowing which bird is near which one may be enough.
By the way, the bloody big garden is fine.-- Amos Kito, Feb 07 2008 (Is it still triangulation if you're using more than three microphones?)
I expect you'd get some spurious results unless the bird is all but solitary.-- phoenix, Feb 07 2008 I would put this idea in "product, audio environment" The poacher part, as you point out is the main downside, however still a deserving idea. +-- xenzag, Feb 07 2008 po's "twitching aid" [Link] is similar, maybe what you'd use after "Bird Spotter", upon arrival at Bloody Big Garden. It even has a camera.-- Amos Kito, Feb 07 2008 Two microphones ...one above the other for elevation triangulation and two side by side for triangulating the azimuth might work if properly spaced and coordinated through an Integrated controller...it's a great idea...iIlike it. I imagine it should be a compact, hand held device with a camera mount. Not overly complicated.-- Blisterbob, Feb 07 2008 " Two microphones ...one above the other for elevation triangulation and two side by side for triangulating the azimuth might work if properly spaced and coordinated through an Integrateed controller...it's a great idea...iIlike it. I imagine it should be a compact, hand held device with a camera mount. Not overly complicated. "
Are you perhaps directly related to the president of the company I am currently employed at?
" Death ray / Cloaking device - I've promised the customer we ship in thirty days. Get started on the design "-- normzone, Feb 07 2008 there's a product:gps category
love this-- dentworth, Feb 07 2008 Time to production, three days if no government specs are involved or we don't get into a color choice debate with the customer set the consumer retail price at no more than $12.48 per....four years if government is invloved...oh, and jack the price to 2.5 million U.S. per copy.-- Blisterbob, Feb 07 2008 I thought that this device might be to retaliate in kind.-- bungston, Feb 08 2008 hey dr. send regards to my brother at ny brass. (danny flam)
btw, move this idea out of home:garden to scienc:biology like po's-- pashute, Apr 26 2014 I thought the idea was going to be "paint roundels on birds' wings".-- FlyingToaster, Nov 25 2016 random, halfbakery