The next update  (released 7 April 2025) to the DOC AI Camera will introduce the option of running the machine vision on the camera. This opens up the ability to control traps and other devices and to integrate with low bandwidth communication networks. There  are also some more audio updates, including the ability to do 5 minute bird recordings and synchronising audio recording across devices.

This release also fixes a bug where the battery capacity was reading incorrectly.

Machine vision on the DOC AI Cam

For now the AI part of this release is mainly of interest to third parties that will integrate with the camera.

When the AI is running on the camera it can either:

• Broadcast what has been identified via the auxiliary port (in the future there will be the option to broadcast via Bluetooth), or
• Raise or lower a digital output on the auxiliary port when specified animals are detected. The main application here is to control devices: for example to enable a trap when a target species is detected, or to disable a trap when a protected species is detected. It could also open a gate for a penguin, but not open it for a cat.

Configuring the AI on the DOC AI Cam

To enable the machine vision on the DOC AI Cam follow these steps

1. Connect your camera to the Sidekick App
2. Enable High Power mode (on the General Tab). The DOC AI Cam needs to be in High Power mode to run the machine vision model. We intend to introduce lower power modes that will be slower to make classifications (eg for monitoring).
3. Navigate to the Config page: On the General Tab click Advanced, select Advanced from the menu, then select Config
4. In the Thermal Motion section enable
   1. Do tracking on Pi
   2. Run classifier
   3. Tracking events
5. Press Save Thermal Motion Config
   
   

Using Simple mode

Simple mode is designed to either enable a trap when a target species is identified, or disable a trap when a protected species is identified. This is done by change the state of the digital RPi_Tx (white) line. 

This line is configured to be either low, or high by default. When it is low by default and a target species is detected the line is raised high for a configurable duration. This signal can be used to enable a trap. If a protected species is detected then this will be lowered, i.e. the trap will be disabled.

If this line high by default and a protected species is detected it is bought low for a configurable duration.

To configure this follow these steps

1. In the Comms port section
   1. Select Enable to use the comms port
   2. Select the Trap default state unchecked is low, checked is high
   3. Set Comms type to Simple from the drop down. 
   4. Specify  the Trap Species that you want to trap. This is done using JSON with this format: {"name":confidence, "name",confidence,...}. We recommend using a confidence of 80. The current species that are recognise include: possum, rodent, cat, hedgehog, mustelid, bird, kiwi, leporidae, wallaby, penguin, vehicle, human, deer, dog, sheep. For example: {"possum": 80, "cat":80}
   5. Specify the Trap Duration time.
   6. Specify the protect species, using the same JSON format above
   7. Specify the Protect duration
2. Press Save Comms Config
   

The classification delay is the amount of time that it takes for camera to classify an animal once it comes into frame. This depends on the quality of the image. Typically it is a few seconds.

We will be simplifying this setup in the coming months.

Example

This video shows a camera that is configured to identify humans. The auxiliary port has an LED that turns on when the RPi_TX line is high. You can see that when I walks in front of the camera the LED turns on after a couple of seconds.

The Cacophony Project have been experimenting with using the DOC AI Cam with the High Interaction Rate trap. This found that the camera could accurately identify possums and enable the trap.

See this document for more details on broadcasting the identified animal.

New audio options

The new audio options can be accessed by clicking on the Advanced link on the General tab when your camera is connected to Sidekick, and then clicking on the Audio Recording Link. There are two new audio options:

1. The option to synchronise audio recorders b y setting a seed
2. The option to take a 5 minute recording

We will add these options to the audio tab of the Sidekick app over the coming weeks.

Synchronising bird recordings

If you have multiple DOC AI Cams you can synchronise the recordings so each camera will record at the same random time during the day. This is a feature that was requested and built for the first version of our bird monitor using Android phones and now we are making it available on the DOC AI Cam.

To synchronise the bird monitors put the same number (it can be any number) into the audio seed box on each camera.

5 minute bird count

To take a one off, 5 minute bird recording simply press the Take 5 Minute Recording button. This is useful if you'd like a recording when you are doing a 5 minute bird count.