Thejasvi Ravindra Beleyur

Thanks to the electronics and digital revolution of the past two decades - audio equipment and open-source software is everywhere. More and more audio recordings of animals  and ecosystems (in the field of bioacoustics) are being made everywhere, and analysed with a few clicks of a button. In a strange parallel to Jevon's paradox, when it comes to audio data - ‘efficient’ data collection and analysis is not always better at the system-level. The first part of the project with Prof. Manajari Jain (IISER Mohali, India) focusses on spreading good practices for audio data and analysis through the development of open-source software packages for microphone calibration and workshops to teach practicioners in the field. The second part of the project with Prof. Kalle Åström (Uni. Lund, Sweden) focusses on improving the ease with which data can be collected in the field. The electronics revolution has brought down the cost of multi-channel audio recorders where multiple mics can record audio at the same time. Using the audio from multiple mics the movements of animals can be tracked in 3D space. One major issue in using 3D mics has been to measure their XYZ positions. Self-positioning algorithms for microphones exist for about a decade or so. The self-positioning algorithms for mics have never reached practical use cases due to the absence of open-source packages for the scientific community. We will thus develop and open-source package to perform mic self-positioning and rigorously validate their performance for use in the field.