Ambient Temperature Sensor
The collars can be ordered with the ability to record the ambient temperature. Each time a GPS location is obtained, the ambient temperature is recorded and which is accurate to 0.1oC. This is ideally suited to environmental studies of animals for example in how an animal uses shade in particularly hot climates
Inclinometers
The collars can also be ordered with the ability to record the angle of an animal's head. The inclinometers record the position of the head in the pitch and roll planes and are accurate to ± 4°. These sensors are particularly helpful to determine the activity of some animals particularly the feeding behaviour of grazing herbivores. Once calibrated the sensors can record whether an animal has its head down and therefore perhaps grazing. Calibration can be visually verified using the DataTraX™ software which can present the data recorded in real time.
RINEX Data Output
The GPS collars provided by BlueSky Telemetry™ are highly accurate in standard mode with accuracies better than 2.5m in most cases. However, all BlueSky Telemetry™ collars have the ability to output the GPS data in RINEX format which allows the data to be post-processed differentially corrected to improve accuracy further. The use of RINEX will improve the accuracy of the collars by approximately 30% but has a cost in terms of data quantity - instead of a maximum of 65,000 locations, only 4,000 locations can be collected. When RINEX data is chosen when using the DataTraX™ software, two files are created on board the collar - the standard output file (see data output page) and a RINEX file. The user can therefore immediately check the validity of their data before carrying out differential correction on the RINEX file. BlueSky Telemetry™ recommends the Gringo software provided by Nottingham University in England. RINEX is not available on the CellTraX™ collars.
HearTraX™ - heart rate monitoring
To be launched in July 2006, BlueSky Telemetry's HearTraX™ will enable the scientist to record the heart rate (beats per minute) of a terrestrial mammal fitted with any BlueSky Telemetry™ collar.
AudioTraX™ - audio recording of animal's behaviour
To be launched in August 2006, BlueSky Telemetry's AudioTrax™ will record the the audio signature of any noise that could be important in behavioural studies. For example, the potential to record the audio signature of a biting event could be recorded as could breathing and other activities such as rumination. It could also be used to record events exterior to the animal such as gun shots or low flying jets. |
