Discarded smartphones to help protect rainforests against poachers.
A California-based group Rainforest Connection has found a way to save forests using your old discarded smartphones. The company provides real-time logging detection pinpointing deforestation activity as it occurs, to everyone around the world.
The company places old Android smartphones in a fixed waterproof casing, with a solar charger and mounts them high in the tree canopy where they are hard to see. All the devices continuously captures all ambient sounds, and can even detect the sounds of destructive activities like logging/chainsaws up to one kilometer in the distance. When the smartphone picks up the sound of a chainsaw, distress, , gun shot, the device transmits an alert to a cloud server which in turn sends an SMS message to first responders.
Each smartphone can cover an area of 300 hectares of forest. The system has already been placed in the Kalaweit Supayang Nature Reserve in West Sumatra, Indonesia for the past one year, and protects 135 hectare from illegal loggers, according to Scientific American.
"The forest can speak – and you can hear it. They can hear the rifle shots when people are shooting animals. They can tell when the forest is under attack by people who are breaking the law," said Neil Young, the creator of the project.
Rainforest connection have also launched a campaign on Kick starter to raise $100,000 to develop the technology. The company plans to release web and mobile apps to let backers listen to a live sound stream of the rainforests in Africa and the Amazon.
Source: RFCX
Follow Us
Silky Malhotra
Silky Malhotra loves learning about new technology, gadgets, and more. When she isn’t writing, she is usually found reading, watching Netflix, gardening, travelling, or trying out new cuisines. View Full Profile
