Tiny tech could enable wildlife monitoring in miniature

Meghan Miner Murray

Seeing the world from a large insect's point of view is now possible, thanks to emerging technology from the University of Washington (Sci Robotics 2020; doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abb0839). There, engineers tackled the challenge of creating a fully functional wireless camera that, at roughly half the weight of a paperclip, is light enough for a darkling beetle to wear like a backpack. The unit is triggered on and off by an onboard accelerometer to save battery life and streams monochrome live video at a rate of one to five frames per second via Bluetooth. It's the first fully power‐autonomous camera of this scale.

The researchers looked at insects’ own natural trade‐offs, for which vision is often metabolically and physically expensive, to scale the technology accordingly. “Live animals can already do way better than us at this energy storage problem”, says study author Vikram Iyer (Seattle, WA). To mimic the energy‐saving vision of large insects like beetles, locusts, and mantids, a remotely operated rotating head allows the camera to pan 60‐degrees, scanning a wide field of view, or to focus on objects without expending energy by moving the whole body or, in this case, the whole camera.

This innovation could help answer questions about how insects and other small creatures learn and perceive the world, says Iyer. “Are they using vision as a primary sense for doing certain tasks? Having a first‐person view could be really useful for that.” Other researchers agree. Iyer says he's already been contacted by scientists interested in adapting the micro‐machinery for their own research on hawk moths, snakes, tarantulas, and hummingbirds. Ines Moran, a native bird researcher at the University of Auckland (Auckland, New Zealand) hopes to use many of the same technological components to deploy bird backpacks equipped with microphones.

“It turns out that very small animals are often less studied because they can be harder to find and [observe]. With these devices, it now becomes much easier to monitor tiny understudied species in the wild”, says Moran. This scaled technology is “filling a niche that many wildlife biologists want to see flourish…and new technologies, like mini steerable beetle cameras, are opening a whole new world to scientists”.

A darkling beetle (Tenebrionidae) roams the University of Washington's campus wearing a tiny camera.

M Stone/U Washington

中文翻译：

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派遣

微小的技术可以实现对野生动植物的微型监测

梅根·米纳·默里

得益于华盛顿大学的新兴技术，现在有可能从大昆虫的角度看待世界（科学机器人2020； doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abb0839）。在那里，工程师们解决了创建全功能无线摄像头的难题，该摄像头重量仅为回形针的一半左右，重量轻，足以让黑甲虫像背包一样穿。车载加速度计可触发该装置的开和关，以节省电池寿命，并通过蓝牙以每秒一到五帧的速度流传输单色实时视频。这是第一台这种规模的全自动电源摄像机。

研究人员研究了昆虫自身的权衡取舍，为此昆虫的视力通常在新陈代谢和物理上都是昂贵的，以相应地扩展该技术。研究作者Vikram Iyer（华盛顿州西雅图）说：“在这个储能问题上，活体动物已经比我们做得更好。” 为模仿甲虫，蝗虫和螳螂等大型昆虫的节能视野，可通过远程操作的旋转头使摄像机平移60度，扫描宽广的视野，或聚焦在物体上，而无需通过移动物体来消耗能量整个身体，或在这种情况下，整个摄像机。

艾耶说，这项创新可以帮助回答有关昆虫和其他小动物如何学习和感知世界的问题。“他们是否将视力作为完成某些任务的主要依据？对此，拥有第一人称视角可能会非常有用。” 其他研究人员也同意。艾耶说，有兴趣将微机械用于他们自己的鹰蛾，蛇，狼蛛和蜂鸟的研究的科学家已经与他联系。奥克兰大学（新西兰奥克兰）的鸟类研究者Ines Moran希望使用许多相同的技术组件来部署配备麦克风的鸟类背包。

事实证明，很小的动物通常研究较少，因为它们很难发现和观察。有了这些设备，现在可以更轻松地监视野外被忽视的微小物种了，” Moran说。这种规模化的技术“填补了许多野生生物生物学家希望看到的繁荣……并且诸如微型可控甲虫相机之类的新技术为科学家们打开了一个全新的世界”。

一只黑甲虫（Tenebrionidae）戴着微型照相机在华盛顿大学的校园里漫游。

M斯通/华盛顿