The cameras were deployed a bit more than a month ago now… and the first data are arriving through the post office!

I am excited to receive so many envelopes…

Originally, the citizen scientists were supposed to upload their data on an online platform specifically designed for that purpose. But for the moment, the amount of data is simply too much and takes too much time to load. On the introduction page, we explain that – at this stage – the prototype camera technology records EVERY footage with movement. That means that it also records every shadows, leaves or raindrops moving under the lens… That creates a lot of ‘false positives’ (videos without any actual animal in it – to know more about this click here). This challenge will be solved on the next generation of camera – as we use the data of this project to train an algorithm to automatically detect and recognize the animals on footage. The second generation of camera will be able to only (or at least mostly) record footage with animals on them.