Nazir Sajid, Newey Scott, Irvine R Justin, Verdicchio Fabio, Davidson Paul, Fairhurst Gorry, Wal René van der
School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2017 Jan 11;12(1):e0169758. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169758. eCollection 2017.
The widespread availability of relatively cheap, reliable and easy to use digital camera traps has led to their extensive use for wildlife research, monitoring and public outreach. Users of these units are, however, often frustrated by the limited options for controlling camera functions, the generation of large numbers of images, and the lack of flexibility to suit different research environments and questions. We describe the development of a user-customisable open source camera trap platform named 'WiseEye', designed to provide flexible camera trap technology for wildlife researchers. The novel platform is based on a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and compatible peripherals that allow the user to control its functions and performance. We introduce the concept of confirmatory sensing, in which the Passive Infrared triggering is confirmed through other modalities (i.e. radar, pixel change) to reduce the occurrence of false positives images. This concept, together with user-definable metadata, aided identification of spurious images and greatly reduced post-collection processing time. When tested against a commercial camera trap, WiseEye was found to reduce the incidence of false positive images and false negatives across a range of test conditions. WiseEye represents a step-change in camera trap functionality, greatly increasing the value of this technology for wildlife research and conservation management.
相对廉价、可靠且易于使用的数码摄像陷阱的广泛普及，使得它们在野生动物研究、监测及公众宣传方面得到了广泛应用。然而，这些设备的用户常常因相机功能控制选项有限、生成大量图像以及缺乏适应不同研究环境和问题的灵活性而感到沮丧。我们描述了一种名为“WiseEye”的用户可定制开源摄像陷阱平台的开发，旨在为野生动物研究人员提供灵活的摄像陷阱技术。这个新颖的平台基于树莓派单板计算机及兼容的外围设备，允许用户控制其功能和性能。我们引入了确认传感的概念，即通过其他方式（如雷达、像素变化）确认被动红外触发，以减少误报图像的出现。这一概念与用户可定义的元数据一起，有助于识别虚假图像并大大减少采集后处理时间。在与商业摄像陷阱进行测试时，发现WiseEye在一系列测试条件下降低了误报图像和漏报图像的发生率。WiseEye代表了摄像陷阱功能的一次重大变革，极大地提高了这项技术在野生动物研究和保护管理中的价值。
