Animal tracking made affordable with $7 Bluetooth beacons, thanks to Apple's Find My network

Why it matters: Usually, search wildlife involves utilizing GPS trackers, which are costly and power-hungry. However, researchers person begun utilizing mini AirTag-compatible trackers that broadcast an animal's location by pinging adjacent mobile devices.

Conservationists' newest limb is simply a elemental $7 Bluetooth beacon successful a 3D-printed case. Thanks to nan comparatively uncomplicated hardware, it weighs overmuch little than GPS trackers. Wildlife should hardly announcement they are wearing nan device.

A Nordic Semiconductor nRF5 spot powers nan tracker, flashed pinch firmware to broadcast arsenic a Bluetooth low-energy beacon. It generates a cardinal compatible pinch Apple's Find My network, meaning nan trackers tin piggyback connected nan vast, crowd-sourced web of iOS devices already retired successful nan world. Any iPhone wrong scope of a beacon tin anonymously study its position to researchers.

Researchers from nan University of Zurich and nan Australian National University deployed beacons astir Canberra, Australia, to trial their system. They recovered that while not arsenic precise arsenic GPS, nan BLE beacons achieved positioning accuracy wrong astir 100 meters, which is not bad considering nan minuscule costs and powerfulness requirements. Performance was moreover amended for calculating nan comparative positions betwixt aggregate beacons, which is important for studying animal interactions and spatial relationships wrong packs aliases herds.

The devices are inexpensive and easy capable to deploy that wildlife researchers tin equip full populations of animals, moreover successful distant areas. It besides requires nary hands-on search aliases recoveries.

Furthermore, nan much BLE beacons nan researchers deploy successful nan wild, nan much mobile devices prime up nan signals and study locations to nan cardinal base. Unfortunately, nan trackers go overmuch little effective successful sparsely populated areas. Researchers whitethorn beryllium capable to flooded this caveat pinch a web of receivers built pinch Arduino, Raspberry Pi, aliases ESP32 boards.

There are different limitations, too. The researchers statement that BLE beacons are mostly prone to "high positional error." The beingness of engaged roads seems to deteriorate precision, apt owed to interference aliases awesome blocking from each nan vehicles. The tracker's 100-meter accuracy will besides not suffice for much precise studies. Still, these trackers could beryllium a game-changer for applications wherever nan sheer standard of search is nan biggest obstacle.

Image credit: Stefan Schwinghammer