How to eavesdrop on urban bats with smart sensors

By Helen Briggs BBC News

29 June 2017

Scientists are studying the urban life of bats in unprecedented detail using sensors installed in a London park.

The detectors eavesdrop on the nocturnal chatter of bats, picking up their ultrasonic calls and monitoring bat activity in real-time.

The project aims to investigate the health of bat populations at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.

The smart devices have the potential to monitor the diversity of all sorts of wildlife, from birds to frogs.

Kate Jones, professor of ecology and biodiversity at University College London, is one of the world's leading experts in bat conservation.

"We've created this 'Shazam' for bat activity - bat calls - so we have put sensors into the park, which are connected up to the Wi-Fi and power," she explained. 

"And we've put an intelligent device into the sensors so that they can pick up ultrasonic bat calls and then tell us if it's a bat and what species it is in real time."

Living lab

In what the researchers describe as a living lab, or Internet of Wild Things, smart bat sensors have been installed at 15 sites across the park. The monitors are automatically tracking the species present and their activity levels in real-time. 

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Spider-style sensor detects vibrations

11 December 2014 Last updated at 11:39

By Jonathan Webb

Science reporter, BBC News

By copying the design of an organ found in spiders' legs, engineers in South Korea have built a sensor that can detect miniscule vibrations.

It works because the vibrations open and close cracks in a very thin layer of platinum, changing its conductivity.

A similar slit-based system is found inside the joints of some spiders.

The team reports in the journal Nature that when they stick their sensor to the neck or wrist, it can read out what someone says - or their pulse.

Speaking to BBC News, Prof Mansoo Choi said the project began two years ago, when one of his colleagues at Seoul National University read a paper in the same journal.

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Tiny weapons wage war on flies

TINY sensors glued to flies will help scientists deploy infiltrators to help protect the $6.9 billion horticultural industry.

The CSIRO has developed a sterile strain of male-only Queensland fruit flies to disrupt the insects' breeding cycles. Each could prevent countless females from breeding because female fruit flies -- unlike the males -- mate only once. The approach, known as sterile insect technology, has been used against fruit flies for 50 years but the national science agency plans to unleash the first flies sterilised by genetic engineering rather than radiation, which hinders them from competing for females.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/tiny-weapons-wage-war-on-flies/story-e6frgcjx-1226860607489#

Scientists get shark's eye view of life

February 2014: For the first time scientists are able gain a 'shark’s eye' view and witness what life is like as a top predator thanks to new technology.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii and the University of Tokyo have fitted sharks with sensors and video recorders to measure and see where they are going, how they are getting there, and what they are doing once they reach their destinations.

While other scientists are also piloting a project using instruments ingested by sharks and other top ocean predators, like tuna, to gain new awareness into these animals’ feeding habits.

The instruments, which use electrical measurements to track ingestion and digestion of prey, can help researchers understand where, when and how much sharks and other predators are eating, and what they are feasting on.

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