Week 8: Tuesday March 27 - Make-up class

Week 7: March 21

• Present camera trap plan revisions, or works in progress, as appropriate.

Week 8: Tuesday March 27 m- Make-up class

• Understanding GPS and GIS: Data files and formats

Always cite the sources of your work, including code, the places you learned techniques from, and the inspirations of your ideas. Few ideas come out of the blue, and your readers can learn a lot from the sources you learned from or were inspired by.

Observation assignment: We'll break the class into groups of three. Half the groups will go to the zoo to observe monkeys and take notes. The other half will go public gathering places and observe humans and take notes, using principles laid out in class and in Measuring Behavior. Use the guidelines given out in class.

Tom's Calendar
Office Hours: See calendar link

Assignment: join the class NYU Google Group.

• Read Tony's https://webspace.utexas.edu/ad26693/www/ and notes on the field site he works at

• Intro to current wildlife research methods and practices

• Possible guest TBA

Week 1: Jan 25

Week 2: Feb 1

Week 3: Feb 8

• Data collection in the field: Notebooks, PDAs, and other collection tools

In-class Assignment: In four groups: Take a radio receiver or a collar and a GPS unit or phone. If you have the radio collar, you're the animal being sought. Based on what you've been told, think like that animal, and go about your day. Constrain yourself to the area around Washington Square Park. If your group has the receiver, find the other groups. When you find a group, note the location, and give them the radio, and return to class. When you return to class, note your path and location on the map. The collar groups will get a five-minute head start. We will take an hour for this exercise.

Field Assignment: take one of the GPS receivers from school, or your phone or any other GPS receiver you have. log an hour's travel through the city. Export the data as a KML file and display it in Google Earth. Show where the greatest errors occurred. Be prepared to explain in class why those errors occurred.

Week 4: Feb 15

• GPS & GIS
• Understanding GPS and GIS: Data files and formats

POssible guest TBA

Week 5: Feb 22

• Electronics in the wild
  • Robustness and power
  • power calculation
  • motion sensing
• Assignment: Given what you know about the strengths and limitations of camera traps, design your own camera trap. Come up with a system design by next week. Describe the features and interface of the particular devices you plan to use. Explain your work plan, including what has to get done and how long you think it will take to do it.

Week 6: Feb 29

• Present camera trap designs
• Guest presentation: Doug on GSM networks

Week 7: March 7

• Present camera trap plan revisions, or works in progress, as appropriate.

Spring Break: March 14

Week 8: March 21

• Present camera trap projects

Your final project need not be a fully working prototype, but it must be fully useful, and contain material that others could act upon. It should describe your solution in terms a practicing biologist can use. What do they need to learn to make it happen? What kinds of partnerships can they form to do so? What materials will they need? What costs will they incur?\\

Week 9: March 28

• Discuss final ideas; present initial research

Week 10: April 4

Week 11: April 11

• Present final project system research, initial system diagrams, and work plan.

Week 12: April 18

• Final project development

Week 13: April 25

Week 14: May 2

• Datalogging to SD

itp.nyu.edu/monkeytracking

(http://)itp.nyu.edu/monkeytracking

Assignment: take one of the GPS receivers we have, log an hour's travel through the city. Export the data as a KML file and display it in Google Earth. Show where the greatest errors occurred. Write a report on the receiver's strengths and weaknesses for tracking.

• Re-do hide and seek, but with a GPS receiver on both the tracker and the tracked people. Compare the GPS logs of each in a KML file.

• Read Tony's Notes from the field

Please keep a project page for your projects in this class on this wiki. You may also keep an external site, but we would like to gather summaries and overviews of all projects on this site for future reference. Make sure to identify the project members in your project pages, of course. See Morgen & Christina's Accelerometer progress pages linked off the Projects page or Mike and Arturo's Report on Remote Measurement of New World Primates for examples of good documentation style.

• Read Mike and Arturo's Report on Remote Measurement of New World Primates

Spring Break: March 16

Final presentations week 14
Reading: re-read Mike and Arturo's Report on Remote Measurement of New World Primates

• Build a prototype of a new device or system for tracking, observing, or measuring (radios, cameras)
• Assemble detailed research on a topic with specific recommendations and/or tutorials (power management, data management).

Your final project need not be a fully working prototype, but it must be fully useful, and contain material that others could act upon. It should decribe your solution in terms a practicing biologist can use. What do they need to learn to make it happen? What kinds of partnerships can they form to do so? What materials will they need? What costs will they incur?\\

• Assignment (optional): datalog the output from an accelerometer or tilt switch over the course of a day, mounted on yourself or some other animal. Graph the result. Report on what you learn from the graph.

• Assemble detailed research on a topic with specific recommendations and/or tutorials (power management, data management). Your final project need not be a fully working prototype, but it must be fully useful. It should decribe your solution in terms a practicing biologist can use. What do they need to learn to make it happen? What kinds of partnerships can they form to do so? What materials will they need? What costs will they incur?\\

- or -

• Check out a pair of radios (RFM22, XBee900, or other) and a pair of GPS receivers. Log the received signal strength on one radio (stationary) as received from a moving radio. Make a GPS track of the position of the stationary radio and the moving radio. Create a map of the signal strength using the GPS tracks.

• Re-do hide and seek, but with a GPS receiver on both the tracker and the tracked people. Compare the GPS logs of each in a KLM file.

Course Structure

Week 1: Jan 26

• Discuss technologies currently in use in the field:
  • Radio Collars
  • Camera Traps
  • GPS
  • PDAs

• Read Tony's Notes from the field

Week 2: Feb 2

• Telemetry
• Data collection and management
• Camera observation

Observation assignment: We'll break the class into groups of three. Half the groups will go to the zoo to observe monkeys and take notes. The other half will go public gathering places and observe humans and take notes, using principles laid out in class and in Measuring Behavior

Week 3: Feb 9

• Telemetry: radio collars
• Datalogging to SD

Assignment: As a group (different groups from last !!Week), pick one of the below:

• Take a radio receiver and two collars. Two members of the group should leave the third, and go for coffee, for a walk, etc., within a constrained area. The third should use the receiver to find the other two. How long does it take? What methods did you use to make it easier? Then reverse the roles and compare notes.

Week 4: Feb 16

• Telemetry: GPS & GIS (Tony)
• Evaluating GPS receivers

Assignment: take one of the GPS receivers we have, log an hour's travel through the city. Export the data as a KLM file and display it in Google Earth. Show where the greatest errors occurred. Write a report on the receiver's strengths and weaknesses for tracking.

Week 5: Feb 23

• Telemetry: evaluating signal strength
  • RFM22 radios
  • XBee 900 radios

Assignment: Plotting received radio signal. Choose one of the below, and work in pairs or threes.

	* Check out a pair of radios (RFM22, XBee900, or other) and a pair of GPS receivers.  Log the received signal strength on one radio (stationary) as received from a moving radio.  Make a GPS track of the position of the stationary radio and the moving radio.  Create a map of the signal strength using the GPS tracks.

	or

	* Re-do hide and seek, but with a GPS receiver on both the tracker and the tracked people.  Compare the GPS logs of each in a KLM file.

Week 6: March 2

• Accelerometry and motion sensing
• Power calculation and estimation
• 'Assignment (optional): datalog the output from an accelerometer or tilt switch over the course of a day, mounted on yourself or some other animal. Graph the result. Report on what you learn from the graph.

Week 7: March 9

• Telemetry: DIY collar

Assignment: using the analog circuit provided, come up with your own collar design. Consider:

• Clarity of reception
• Physical design: weight, position, attachment to the animal
• Power usage
• motion and/or mortality sensing
• Optional features

Present your design next week. This is a paper presentation: the collar need not be working, but you should have a block diagram for the circuit, and be able to discuss the whole use of the collar, from out-of-the-box to tracking of the animal.

Spring Break: March 16

Week 8: March 23

• Present radio designs
• Camera traps

Final Assignment: work in groups of 3 + or -1 Summarize one of the aspects of your work this semester in a practical project, recommending an approach to wildlife telemetry. Possible approaches:

• Build a prototype of a new device or system for tracking, observing, or measuring (radios, cameras)
• Assemble detailed research on a topic with specific recommendations and/or tutorials (power management, data management)

	Your final project need not be fully working, but it must be fully useful. It should decribe your solution in terms a practicing biologist can use.  What do they need to learn to make it happen?  What kinds of partnerships can they form to do so?  What materials will they need? What costs will they incur?
Initial concept presentations due week 11
Final presentations week 14

Week 9: March 30

• Discuss final ideas

Week 10: April 6

• Final project concept presentation with guests

Week 11: April 13

• Optional topics: GSM monitoring

Week 12: April 20

• Final project development

Week 13: April 27

• Final project development

Week 14: May 4

• Final project prototype presentation with guests

Feb 10: class cancelled due to pathetic amount of snow

Week 4: Feb. 17

Week 5: Feb. 24

Make-up class, Week 6: Feb. 27, Saturday

• Measuring Behavior, Paul Martin & Patrick Bateson, chapters 1 & 2 (online)

• , Paul Martin & Patrick Bateson, chapters 1 & 2 (online)

• Final review of prototypes. Show your revised prototypes, discuss any tests you've done with them. Present your final documentation as well. Outside guests as available.

Grading

Participation & Attendance: 33.3%
Production Assignments: 33.3%
Documentation: 33.3%

Participation & Attendance

Showing up on time, engaging in the class discussion, and offering advice and critique on other projects in the class is a major part of your grade. Please be present and prompt. Lateness will hurt your grade. If you're going to be late or absent, please email your instructor in advance. If you have an emergency, please let your instructor know as soon as you can. Please turn in assignments on time as well.

Laptops

Laptop use is fine if you are using your laptop to present in class, or if we're in the middle of an exercise that makes use of it. Whenever classmates are presenting or we're in the midst of a class discussion, however, please keep your laptop closed. The quality of the class depends in large part on the quality of your attention and active participation, so please respect that and close your lid.

Mobile Phones

Please put them on vibrate or turn them off before you come to class unless they are part of your project. If you have an emergency that requires you to answer your phone during class, please tell your instructor ahead of time.

Production Assignments

For production assignments, you'll be expected to present your project in class on the day that it's due. All group members should be present, on time, and should participate equally in the presentation.

Good documentation habits for this class:

Please keep a project page for your projects in this class on this wiki. You may also keep an external site, but we would like to gather summaries and overviews of all projects on this site for future reference. Make sure to identify the project members in your project pages, of course. See Morgen & Christina's Accelerometer progress pages linked off the http://itp.nyu.edu/monkeytracking/Projects/Projects page for an example of good documentation style.

Always cite the sources of your work, including code, the places you learned techniques from, and the inspirations of your ideas. Few ideas come out of the blue, and your readers can learn a lot from the sources you learned from or were inspired by.

• Measuring Behavior, Paul Martin & Patrick Bateson, chapters 1 & 2 (handout)
• Read Tony's research introduction and notes on the field site he works at
• Browse Tom's blog postings from Tiputini

• open questions Read the rest of the class website as well.

March 17: Spring Break. Tony in Ecuador. Anything needed from the field?

Introductory Phase

In weeks 1-4, we'll cover how behavior research on animals is done in the field, focusing on the monkey research at Tiputini. We'll cover the theory, the tools, and the methods. At the end of this phase, you'll come up with project ideas.

Week 1: Jan. 20

Production Phase

In weeks 5- 10, you'll design and build a solution to address one or more of the needs of monkey researchers.

Testing Phase

In weeks 11-14, you'll test what you built, and report on what worked, what didn't, and what the next steps are. During this phase, you'll have your classmates at your disposal for testing, as needed.

• The class is at your group's disposal for half the class period. You can discuss and get feedback, or you can use your classmates as test subjects, or you can have them run tests that you describe.

• The class is at your group's disposal for half the class period. You can discuss and get feedback, or you can use your classmates as test subjects, or you can have them run tests that you describe.

• The class is at your group's disposal for half the class period. You can discuss and get feedback, or you can use your classmates as test subjects, or you can have them run tests that you describe.

• Summary review of of all projects, in preparation for next week.

Week 1: Jan. 20

• Project reports and production questions as appropriate.

• Specific topics TBA depending on project needs.
• Prototype testing. Two groups.
  • Determine in advance what tests you need to run

• Prototype testing workshop. Two groups

• Prototype testing workshop. One group

• In week 14, you'll report on the process and share your results with outside guests.

Presentation:

• Initial project concept presentations. Feedback from outside guests as available.

• Electrical issues: power management

• Fabrication issues: approaches to making things rugged and sealing them.

Presentation:

• Initial prototype reviews. Show what you've made. Tell us what your testing plan is for it. Outside guests as available.

Presentation:

• Final review of prototypes. Show your revised prototypes, discuss any tests you've done with them. Present your final documentation as well. Outside guests as available.

Week 1: Jan. 20

Week 2: Jan. 27

Week 3: Feb. 3

Week 4: Feb. 10

• Next week, you'll present the idea in class to outside guests. Describe the problem you're tackling, review current state of the art, and explain your proposed solution.

Week 5: Feb. 17

Week 6: Feb. 24

Week 7: March 3

• Introduction to ArcView and other visualization tools currently in use
• Project reports and production questions as appropriate.

Week 8: March 10

March 17: Spring Break. Tony in Ecuador. Anything needs from the field?

Week 9: March 24

Week 10: March 31

Week 11: April 7

Week 12: April 14

Week 13: April 21

Week 14: April 28

• build and use a camera trap to capture images (when you're not there) of
  • pigeons

• Borrow one of the PDAs and try the interface.

Assignment: Think through the open questions, and come in next week prepared to develop project ideas for the rest of the semester.

• Review of the open questions and Project brainstorming.

Assignment: Decide on a project for the remainder of the semester. Take one of the open questions, design a solution, and build a prototype. Review current applications that relate to what you're working on before you build, and include that in your week 5 presentation.

• In week 5, you'll present the idea in class to outside guests. Describe the problem you're tackling, review current state of the art, and explain your proposed solution.
• In week 10, you will show the working prototype to outside guests..
• From week 10 - 14, you'll test the prototype.
• In week 14, you'll report on the process and share your results with outside guests..

• Initial project concept presentations. Feedback from outside guests.

• Project review: production and concept. Each group will meet us individually to review their project and approach in the wake of the notes from last week, and to discuss their production plan in detail:
  • Use value of your proposed design to your "client": biologists in the field
  • what tools you need to do the job, what ones you know about already, and what ones you need to learn
  • Schedule, possible pitfalls, possible tests to be run on your design

• Project Ideas

Observation assignment: We;ll break the class into groups of three. Half the groups will go to the zoo to observe monkeys and take notes. The other half will go public gathering places and observe humans and take notes, using principles laid out in class and in Measuring Behavior

• Discuss technologies currently in use in the field:
  • Radio Collars
  • Camera Traps
  • GPS
  • PDAs

Assignment: As a group (new groups will be assigned), pick one of the below:

• Take a radio receiver and two collars. Two members of the group should leave the third, and go for coffee, for a walk, etc., within a constrained area. The third should use the receiver to find the other two. How long does it take? What methods did you use to make it easier? Then reverse the roles and compare notes.
• Use a camera trap to capture images when you're not there) of
  • pigeons on the ITP ledge
  • your roommate drinking from the milk carton
  • your dog or cat doing something you never get to see but know happens: playing with a toy, scratching the furniture, etc.
• One person in the group take a GPS receiver out for a walk. Note Lat/long where you do particular things: get a coffee, get on the train, etc. Have another person in the group re-create the walk using another unit, and note any errors, problems, or particularly helpful things in the notes. Then reverse roles and do it again.
• Borrow one of the PDAs and try the interface. Use it to take notes,

• Final presentations: summary and documentation presentations

• Introductions, overview of field research in Ecuador.
• Discuss open questions, Q&A

Assignment: Reading

• open questions
• and Project Ideas
• Measuring Behavior, Paul Martin & Patrick Bateson, chapters 1 & 2

• Q&A on the reading and the questions and application ideas

Observation assignment: half the groups will go to the zoo to observe monkeys and take notes. The other half will go public gathering places

• Decide on the area you're interested in, summarize it, and propose three possible solutions or applications
• Review current applications that relate to what you're working on. Present the current state-of-the-practice in your area

Assignment: Read application area descriptions

Course structure

Week 1:

• Introductions, overview of the field and the problems
• Assignment: Read application area descriptions
  • Motion detection on the monkeys to infer activity
  • Remote collection of data
  • More effective camera traps
  • Telemtry network solutions in the research area
  • Data analysis and visualization?

Week 2:

• Q&A on the application areas
• Intro to current wildlife research methods and practices (Tony)
  • introduction for ITP students
  • review for anthropology students

Assignment: ???

Week 3:

• Intro to interaction design and electronics (Tom)
  • review for ITP students
  • introduction for anthropology students

Assignment: basic sensor datalogging project. How to read data from a sensor and log it.

Week 4:

• Overview of sensing technologies and communications technologies
• Project brainstorming

Week 5:

• Project brainstorming and group formation. Class will be split into groups of three students each: ideally one anthro student, two ITP. Ideally 5-6 groups.

Assignment:

• Decide on the area you're interested in, summarize it, and propose three possible solutions or applications
• Review current applications that relate to what you're working on. Present the current state-of-the-practice in your area

Week 6:

• Initial group proposals
• Class feedback on proposals
• Outside guests to assist in feedback?

Assignment: make any revisions to your proposal based on the feedback you get in class, develop a work plan, and begin research

Week 7:

• Present detailed project work plans: How are you going to do it? What research do you need to review? What technologies do you need to learn about? How are you going to test your work?

Week 8:

• Prototype development.
• Discuss final documentation requirements

Week 9:

• Prototype development.

Week 10:

• Initial prototype reviews. Show what you've tried so far, what's worked and what hasn't.

Week 11:

• Prototype testing.

Week 12:

• Prototype testing.

Week 13:

• Final review of prototypes. Show your revised prototypes, discuss any tests you've done with them

Week 14:

• Final presentations: summary and documentation presentations