Our most important current activity (leader: Marketa Zarybnicka) in this topic is Birds Online project which presents a new approach in citizen science. In particular, it has been dealing successfully with most of citizen science issues, including educational, popularizing, and scientific effects to the general public. The cornerstone of the project is the smart box, a bird box equipped with a computer, one or two cameras, an optical sensor that senses activity, temperature and light sensors, and a microphone. The smart box has been developed through interdisciplinary collaboration between biologists and technicians for monitoring the daytime and nocturnal activities of animals, and it is characterized by some specific technical features.
The project incorporate the public into scientific research via monitoring bird activities and automatic data collection. Anyone can watch the birds activity in the nests through direct transmission or videos. Video streams are stored in a computer located in the „smart nest box“, from which they are transmitted by the user’s local Internet network to the central server Birds Online.
See also:
Zárybnická M, Kubizňák P, Šindelář J, Hlaváč V, 2016. Smart nest box: a tool and methodology for monitoring of cavity-dwelling animals. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 7(4): 483-492.