RainforestCx

So interesting! I’d always wondered about the history behind this. After your hint, there’s more info here: https://www.cardinalpeak.com/why-do-cds-use-a-sampling-rate-...

Rainforest Connection | Director or Marketing | REMOTE, from U.S. | https://rfcx.org

Rainforest Connection (RFCx) is a non-profit tech startup at the edge of conservation technology. We build and deploy scalable, open source solutions that can halt illegal logging and poaching in forests — simultaneously enabling biodiversity measurement and monitoring. RFCx is the next-gen nervous system for the natural world.

Much more info on the company, the mission, and the position available here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rfcx_rainforest-connection-ma...

We are a fully remote and virtual team so you can work from anywhere in the United States for this role. Please send a cover letter detailing why you would be the best candidate for this role and your resume to contact@rfcx.org by 7-May-2020.

We’d love to connect with you about this position, if you’re at all interested. Thanks! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rfcx_rainforest-connection-ma...

Appreciated this — thank you!

This is a super interesting tip — thank you, we were not aware of this (it is reminiscent of tracking of shipping vessels). Do you know of where and how we might be able to make these data available to local partners, like the Tembé tribe, and others? Do you have any contacts at Deere Forestry? Thanks in advance.

Great question, and one that’s of particular importance in our design. Many IoT-type systems make use of on-device data analysis in order to minimize the most energy intensive process: data transfer. Our hardware focuses instead on getting full audio streams up into the cloud in near-real time, continuously, 24 hrs a day. This requires an exceptional amount of energy, as well as the ability to pool energy to continue operating at night and during poor weather. That said, we’ve really overcompensated on energy capture and storage—we operate under the assumption that we should be able to support 1.5 watts of continuous power draw 24hrs a day (normally it’s closer to 50% of this). But that means we try to be able to generate 35-40 watt-hours of solar energy for each day (on average). This is further complicated by the shady/infrequently lit conditions of the tree canopy. So, when direct light shows up (sometimes for moments or minutes only) we want to be able today capture as much as possible (high charging amperage and ample solar panels). Our batteries (LiFePO4) must be able to support this, and not decline over 1-2 years of use being fully discharged and recharged each day). We also designed a type of solar array that is specifically intended for the tree canopies. If this is interesting I’d be more than happy to elaborate more!

TechCrunch just posted a slightly broader article on the project: https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/23/rainforest-connection-enli...

It works pretty well, as demonstrated here in an event within the last couple of weeks in Peru: https://twitter.com/lilitjejauregui/status/97585519352188518...

Thanks for checking out Rainforest Connection! Seems that there are lots of [appropriate] questions about how well this works in the forest, and how our partners on the ground follow up on alerts. Here’s a recent intervention in Peru that sums up the process: https://twitter.com/lilitjejauregui/status/97585519352188518...

It's for carbon capture and storage, as a mechanism for slowing climate change.

An even more powerful and touching video clip of this frog, as captured by Joel Sartore in his Photo Ark project, can be found in this video (starting around 6:00): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49lzBOB4HB4

Another great piece written by Bassel's friend Henry Oh (SV entrepreneur): https://www.birgitterasine.com/works/books/visionary/stories...

I would really like to be to run this sort of analysis (or use tools/services that perform it for me), regardless of how efficient the current popular methods are. Is anyone familiar with the tools or services available to do so? Thanks in advance!

I would absolutely use this, and kind of realize in this moment that I've been waiting for this kind of service for quite some time...

> Legal logging is a bigger threat.

This is common misconception, which should be true, but in fact isn't. Environmental crime is rampant and highly profitable. Interpol estimates that 50-90% of rainforest logging is illegal:

http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Environmental-crime/Proj...

> Thousands of phones sounds like a massive cell phone bill, > even with the cheaper plans overseas referred to in the > article. 10 snapshots a day adds up if you're charged a few > pennies per mms. Would be great to see some some further > elaboration on this point.

Very good question/assertion.

This is Topher, from the article. In our experience so far (Indonesia & Africa), it's been shocking how affordably we're able to operate the system, though there are caveats when it comes to having to work around local standards (to be explained in a moment).

In Indonesia, in our first pilot test in 2013, we were actually able to get SIM cards with unlimited data in retail outlets the equivalent of $2.89/month. You can see a tweet from around that time in which we're quite pleasantly surprised: https://twitter.com/RainforestCx/status/342834137163505664

The caveat in this case was that these plans are pay-as-you-go, which means that credits must be purchased each month, and applied to the number through SMS. Thus, while in the field, we had to extend our API to keep track of credits, interact with the telecom over SMS, and translate keywords in Bahasa Indonesian SMS's that were returned. When an account was running low, another device in the forest was instructed to use a top-up code from (provided by the API) to "top-up" the phone with the low-balance. This is obviously a hack to emulate what people do for each other—namely purchase credits and top up each others' accounts.

Going forward, Rainforest Connection will be looking for semi-affordable monthly plans where available, and only performing work-arounds like the one described above when absolutely necessary.

It's also worth mentioning that each phone is able to hear chainsaw noises up to a kilometer in the distance, meaning that one single phone can "protect" almost 3 square kilometers (one square mile or 300 hectares) of forest. That means that 100 square kilometers can be protected with only 30 devices, which at nearly any GSM data price point is a good value.

I'd be happy to elaborate more if you have more questions. Thanks! -Topher

Thanks, Chuck, this is Topher, the guy from the article. It's clear that we see eye-to-eye on two of the fundamental tenets of the Rainforest Connection project, namely:

1) The Internet of Things need not wait years for specialized, embeddable hardware. Discarded smartphones offer an immediate shortcut that most developers are able to leverage almost immediately. They're chock full of sensors with mature APIs and built to be power efficient and reliable.

2) Surveillance is a emotional issue, but (to me) it has a different meaning when the hardware and software that produces the data are entirely open-source, and—most importantly—the data feeds produced are made immediately available to anyone who desires access. My hope is that Rainforest Connection will not be interpreted as "spy-[ware]" but rather as an open connection between the forest and those around the world. Forks of the project may be used for other purposes, but at its core, the project is about streaming audio/sensor data openly, and building modules for analyzing the data for distinct patterns (the first example of which is illegal logging).

If either of those statements doesn't make sense based on the Make article, I'd encourage you to check out the Kickstarter project page which contains a lot more information about our overall vision and activities:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/topherwhite/rainforest-...

It's fairly clear from reading the linked article that Business Insider has no idea what net neutrality even means, though they are happy to write about it, and somehow use it to disparage Apple's reasonable plans to construct a CDN.

So awesome, thank you! Would love to be able to use something similar to search for and/or give some meta-label-tag to emails that have embedded images too. Will look into it and give it a shot. Thanks again!

It makes me sad that Huawei may now be driven to an even greater distance from the US market—particularly the consumer market. The phones that Huawei makes are quality enough, and cheap enough for me to consider them a staple of the Maker movement (at least that involving android smartphones). If I'm gonna tear apart a phone or at least put it in harsh conditions (like we do at http://rfcx.org), I at least want it to be reliable and expendable, financially. It's now hard enough to get Huawei phones in the US, and I fear it's now only going to get harder. I know that's not really the point—this article is really about spying, and US is not alone in doing so, by any means, but this news affected me on another level.

I think this is a real shame. Huawei makes the best combo of cheap/quality Android phones I've been able to get my hands on. I use the low-end ones in hacking projects almost every day.

Huawai isn't going anywhere, and this article also neglected to mention how popular the IDEOS is in Africa. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/111540-android-phone-huawei-...