BANGALORE, INDIA: Forget Shashi Tharoor and and his 'cattle class' tweets! From the domain of the human beings the social networking technology is entering the animal domain, the domain of the real 'tweeters'.
And this one aims to find out which songbirds spend time together and reveal how they learn their tunes.
The new technology, called Encounternet is a network of long-life wireless transceiver tag devices that can be worn by small animals, says the website.
Encounternet tags continuously monitor the social associations and movement patterns of individuals within a community or neighborhood of individuals. The system is modular and can be adapted for sensing, storing, and transmitting behavioral and physiological data.
All societies (human and animal) can be viewed as networks of interconnected individuals, linked by social, spatial, temporal, and other relationships, the site said. By studying network structure (the links between individuals) we can derive unique insights into the workings of the society, and better understand the behavioral strategies that individuals use to enhance their success.
The devices will weigh approximately 1 gram and will consist of a small microprocessor, a digital radio transceiver, and a power supply. According to a New Scientist report, The 1-gram tags were developed by biologist John Burt with his Washington colleagues Brian Otis and Jayson Bowen.
Powered by a solar cell, with a capacitor to store energy, the tags use radio to report every time another tag comes near and how long it sticks around. That information is picked up by a base station placed in the woods to log the data. Future versions may use small batteries to spy on nocturnal species, or get energy from an animal's movement.
The Encounternet project was presented at the Human-Environment Mobile-Based Interactions Symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week.
According to reports, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle are planning to deploy the tags on song sparrows in a forest near the city next spring.
So get ready to receive a 'human-class' tweet!
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