Documenting Deployments
Equally as important as the photographic data you collect is the metadata about your deployments.
We have printable forms field technicians can take to their sites,
or alternatively fill out the online version of the form (bilingue).
Remember to collect this metadata for EVERY SINGLE DEPLOYMENT or else it is not useful in the end!
All photos from a single deployment should be in a folder named with the convention: “AREA_POINT_MOTHBOXID_YYYY-MM-DD”
#Mothbox ID The Mothboxes all have a unique, persistant name (based on the Pi’s serial number). The names are in the format of (descriptiveword+animal) and are made from the thousand most common descriptive words and animals in both english and spanish.
This is why you will have names like “CoolJirafa” or “PrizeCrab” The name should be written on a sticker on the Mothbox. Like “FondoGorila”
Structuring Data
Semi-Automated Insect Identification is still a relatively new field so there’s not many standard to follow to help us organize our data. So, we are trying to base our meta-data formats off existing types of scientific data collection and processing such as camera trap data.
All the data collected is unique in a specific time and place. Each time-period that a Mothbox is set into the field and then collected is called a “Deployment.” A deployment could last several days or even weeks.
In physical space, we currently organize deployments into different zones.
Country-> Area -> Point
The Country is the country the mothboxes are deployed in. The “Area” is the broader region or group it is being deployed with. For instance it might be “Gamboa” or “Totumas.
The “Point” is a specific descriptive name for where the mothbox is actually being used. For instance “GuasimoTreeBackyard” or “VineNearRioFrijoles.”
Photo and MetaData
A “raw photo” data looks like this:
We send those images to an insect detecting AI, which then creates “individual photos” of each creature detected in the raw image. It would look like this:
For each individual photo of a single insect we collect, we eventually want it tied to the following information as well:
- occurrenceID (file name with unique timestamp of the specific individual photo “gradoVerdín_2024_07_25__21_12_05_HDR0_crop_0.jpg”)
- basisOfRecord (i.e. MACHINE_DETECTED)
- deployment ID
- eventDate (timestamp)
- GPS data
- raw_photo (location of the original “raw photo”)
- identifier (Who did the most up to date ID? i.e. “Mothbot” or “Hubert Szczygiel”
- cv_confidence (how confident the AI was in detecting this if machine detected)
- Taxonomic information: class order family genus species commonName scientificName
Inventory of Mothboxes
If you are running a project with many Mothboxes (more than let’s say, 4) you probably want to start keeping an inventory. Field equipment can get lost, forgotten, or busted up, so it’s handy to know what you have available if a new opportunity strikes! Here’s an example of how we organize our inventory of mothboxes. (Maybe you have suggestions for better organization?)