Hi All, I will post some specifics when I am looking at the data, but we did run comparisons between XBAT, Raven, and Tseep. Breifly, first step was to benchmark Bill's software. Then we ran detectors in XBAT and Raven using 140 different setting to look at site based and detector based variables that impact accuracy and efficiency, and which parameters are most important, i.e., which variables (site, weather, insects, etc.) influenced the behavior of the detector settings (SNR, Occ, Sep, etc) the most. We now are prepareing a manuscript that describes in detail the results from this work. It is not totally straightforward as depending on your site and what your doing with the data, different detector settings may work better or worse for you. Generally accuracy and efficiency are inversly related to each other, so picking a setting that is midline may be best for most, but not all. In any case it was a ton of work that Emma, Lewis, Amy and I have been trying hard to get "out the door" as quickly as possible. More soon!
Talk to you all soon, Mike Michael Lanzone Biotechnology and Biomonitoring Lab Supervisor Carnegie Museum of Natural History Powdermill Avian Research Center 1847 Route 381 Rector, PA 15677 724.593.5521 Office [email protected] On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Andrew Farnsworth < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > There is much fodder for discussion here, but I'll need to keep this > brief - if I can, I'll reply at length to all the additional questions > that Chris posed in a previous email in this vein, but it probably > won't be until later in the weekend. > > David, I am pleased to hear that you are using the SongMeter. Cornell > has been working with Ian to develop a next generation "SongMeter" > unit, called the SoundCache, which we are now using. It's a wonderful > device, and it has many useful features as you mentioned. If any of > you are using these, Mike, Anne, and I may be able to provide some > useful suggestions about how to program the units, battery life, > storage space, etc. I won't bore all of you with that now, but if > there is interest, we can provide info! > > Re:detectors - there is precious little information available on the > full range of behavior of the energy detectors available to us, but I > know for certain that Powdermill Avian Research Center (Mike, Emma, > Lewis, do you want to chime in here?) has worked recently on > evaluating Raven, XBAT, and Oldbird-style detectors. Cornell has done > some work on this as well. Some of these results have been presented > at professional societies and my hope is that there will be a > forthcoming manuscript or two on exactly this topic. There are > differences among these different detectors, though that's a more time > consuming email better saved for later. > > More on this thread later - no doubt others will chime in as well! > > Best, > Andrew > > On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 17:28, David Martin<[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm going to be very interested in other's responses to Chris' questions. > > > > This is my third fall recording NFCs. For the last two I was doing it > at > > home, feeding the mic input to my home computer and recording with Easy > Hi-Q > > Recorder. > > > > This year I added a second mic at a nature center. There is no power at > > the site, and I needed standalone recorder. Rather than kludge something > > together I bought a SongMeter SM1-M (wildlifeacoustics.com). Kind of > > pricey, but every other approach I could think of added up to the same > cost > > or more. You can set the SongMeter to record on whatever schedule you > want. > > It saves the data to an SDHC card. It provides power to the mic. > > > > The mic is based on Bill Evan's flowerpot design using the Knowles > element, > > but I put it on a government surplus mast to get it above some of the > insect > > noise. > > > > I've been using Bill Evan's tools Tseep-x and Thrush-x along with > GlassOFire > > to sort the data. I've been working in an unsystematic way to > > estimate how well Tseep-x and Thrush-x work. It's obvious that they > miss a > > lot sounds, but by far most of them are too faint for me to be confident > of > > the identity of the caller, anyway. > > > > I just got Raven 1.3 and I'm thinking of running some comparisons with > > Bill's tools. Has anyone done that? > > > > My biggest problem at home is katydid calls. I can sort through them > pretty > > fast using Glassofire, but it is a pain. > > > > David Martin > > http://naturebits.org > > > > > > > > > > -- > > NFC-L List Info: > > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME > > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES > > > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > -- > > > > -- > NFC-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES > > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > -- > -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html --
