Energy-Efficient Portable Field Camera for Remote Observation of Ecological Phenomena

A solar-powered portable field camera will be developed for the flexible study of ecological phenomena at the Coal Oil Point Reserve. The camera system will contain the hardware and firmware to autonomously take high resolution images at both NIR and visible wavelengths, which are then compressed and transmitted wirelessly to an offsite receiver for further processing and storage. These images can then be used for quantitative analysis of wildlife behavior via classical and machine learning based computer vision techniques. With our key emphasis on portability, the camera can be easily moved as needed for the duration of a given study.