Sir, I do not have Eyes on the Target, Do I Proceed? Week 1
Josh n -
For the past several weeks my external advisors, Dr. Nowak and Morgan T, and I have faced one major wall in the progression of my project; cameras. A few months back we used a grant from my advisors project (to which mine is tangential) to purchase two WYZE 24-hour surveillance cameras. These guys have color and night vision, and should have worked perfectly for our needs as they save footage onto micro SD chips. However, they get software updates as regularly as one a month, which requires a wi-fi connection to complete, which is something we do not have in that section of the building. Whenever they try to update but can’t, they simply shut off. We tried using a mobile hotspot and connecting to the indoor wi-fi, both to no avail, and resorted to submitting tickets to NAU’s electrical team. We asked for them to install wi-fi in the outdoor section, extend the indoor wi-fi, and fix the video streaming cameras that were previously set up in the vivarium I am looking at. These communications have been slow (not our fault), so not much has been completed, so we are starting to look for other options to get me started on my research sooner.
In our last couple meetings, Dr. N and Morgan and I have discussed options, and we have decided that one of the best courses of action would be to get some trail cameras. These have good color and night vision and are designed to be used out in nature to observe wildlife. The only issue we have is that we don’t have more grant money, so these would be an out of pocket price. Because of this we are going to wait a little longer to see what NAU can do for us regarding the equipment we already have.
In the meantime, I have been getting practice recording data by watching videos taken by Morgan for her project, where she attaches ACT accelerometers to the snakes to make detailed computer simulations of their movements. These have most of the same details that I will be recording, with only a couple glaring differences. The first is that they are placed into a different, smaller tank changing how they move compared to when they are in their big enclosure. The other thing is that they are alone when doing these tests, so I can’t record any interactions between individuals. Despite this it’s still great practice!
Thanks for reading!
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