Chelonia LimitedWildlife Acoustic MonitoringF-POD |
||
Major improvementsLike C-PODs, the F-POD monitors the presence and activity of dolphins, porpoises and other toothed whales by the detection within the FPOD app of the �trains� of echo-location clicks that they make. This gives them much lower false positive rates than can be achieved by identifying the characteristics of individual clicks, whether in wav files or other formats. The F-POD uses new electronics and software to capture more information and this has also made starting and stopping the POD easier. All other deployment procedures are the same as for the C-POD. The F-POD is designed to give efficient and accurate monitoring of cetacean echo-location sounds for all odontocetes except the sperm whale (but it does seem to detect them!). The design builds on experience from C-PODs, from deployments all over the world, and incorporates both the lessons we learned and advances in electronics. The POD's superior performance is based on automatic analysis of click waveform data (time domain data) and this has been greatly enhanced in the F-POD. The F stands for full waveform capture as it also collects more details of selected clicks. We have already see in these full waveforms a previously unknown time domain feature of porpoise clicks. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis of longer clicks is also possible and the results can be reviewed and exported. The richer set of time-domain features of clicks greatly enhances the train detection that is an essential part of any system that aims to combine both low false positive rates and good sensitivity. The F-POD:
For more details, see How the F-POD works and the F-POD specifications page. Software features that connect to ideas about acoustics, statistics, data analysis, etc., are expanded in several PowerPoint presentations available on the Downloads page. Software and User Guides for the F-POD are also available on the Downloads page. For more information about using PODs, see the FAQ, Project planning and Deployment pages. |