Blogging Birds
Sure, you’ve heard of blogs about birds, but have you heard about birds who blog? The Red Kite is a bird of prey native to Scotland with an enigmatic red appearance, two-meter wingspan, and a unique forked tail, and has become a favourite amongst bird watchers and nature enthusiasts. A group of researchers from the University of Aberdeen with staff from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds decided to make the birds’ migratory path an immersive experience with the help of artificial intelligence and animal tags in 2012. Red Kites were carefully fitted with small backpacks that send location ping to a satellite, which in turn reports the movement of the Red Kite to the blog, which generates a short blurb about the location of the given Red Kite. The location of the Red Kite is updated six times a day and the location is accurate, with a 6-meter margin of error. The AI algorithm can identify keywords about the location of the Red Kite and organize the jumble of words associated with the location and local geography into a fairly coherent blog post. People interested can track different birds during their summer migration, deepening the connection to the bird and its habitat.
“How it all works.” Red Kite. Accessed July 24, 2020. http://redkite.abdn.ac.uk/
Categories
Aesthetic/Leisure, Artificial Intelligence, Monitoring, Psychology
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