{"id":1169,"date":"2023-10-10T09:34:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T09:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/man-trains-home-cameras-to-help-repel-badgers-and-foxes\/"},"modified":"2023-10-10T09:34:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T09:34:45","slug":"man-trains-home-cameras-to-help-repel-badgers-and-foxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/man-trains-home-cameras-to-help-repel-badgers-and-foxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Man trains home cameras to help repel badgers and foxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man trains home cameras to help repel badgers and foxes<\/p>\n

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\"Foxe<\/picture><\/span>James Millward<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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By Tom Singleton<\/div>\n
Technology reporter, BBC News<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A man got so fed up with foxes and badgers fouling in his garden that he adapted cameras to help repel them.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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James Milward linked the Ring cameras at his Surrey home to a device that emits high frequency sounds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He then trained the system using hundreds of images of the nocturnal nuisances so it learned to trigger the noise when it spotted them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Milward said it “sounds crazy” but the gadget he called the Furbinator 3000 has kept his garden clean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Getting the camera system to understand what it was looking at was not straightforward though.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“At first it recognised the badger as an umbrella,” he said. “I did some fine tuning and it came out as a sink, or a bear if I was lucky. Pretty much a spectacular failure.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"James<\/picture><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span>James Milward<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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He fed in pictures of the animals through an artificial intelligence process called machine learning and finally, the device worked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The camera spotted a badger, and the high frequency sound went off to send the unwanted night-time visitor on its way and leave the garden clean for Mr Milward’s children to play in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But ultrasonic animal deterrents are not without controversy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The RSPCA has long-objected to them, stating: “Noise levels produced by such ultrasonic devices are likely to be aversive to some animals, potentially causing them discomfort, fear and\/or pain and predicting an individual’s response is difficult.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Milward said he “recognises the importance of living harmoniously with wildlife” but just wanted a humane way of protecting his two young children from the mess left by foxes and badgers, while also preserving his garden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The IT expert said he thought the technology could have much wider applications than a back garden in the home counties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“In agricultural settings there aren’t really any safe deterrents for getting rid of potential predators, and this is an ideal solution for that,” he said, adding that a similar system could be used anywhere where humans and animals come into conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Milward said he was not looking to profit from the Furbinator and instead has made his code open source.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While he may find a wider audience for the device, he admitted at home his wife did not quite share his zeal for his pet project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I think she’s quite perplexed as to what I’m doing,” he said. “But she’s very much used to me going down these crazy paths to solve what would seem a very simple problem.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related Topics<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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