Gwen
 
Thanks for your input.  One of the reasons we're hosting a Conference - there are already over 30 groups world-wide working on and in some cases providing far more developed systems.  The Open-Source folks seem unawares of this, nor do they mention it in their crowd-sourcing.  

I hate to see people re-inventing a wheel.  I've set up a List-Server for those interested in this topic.   I see opportunities for different groups and different users to partner.  At the WAS conference in Sept, our UM business school and administration will provide speakers who will address partnering, licensing, import/export, IP, and other issues that can be barriers or opportunities for cooperation, depending on how one approaches them.  We're also going to talk about SBIR programs as a way any small business in the USA can apply for R&D funds to develop ideas, sensors, devices, etc.

We can provide these systems now and have almost 20 years of experience developing an entire system with cell and satellite communications, web-based reporting, sensors, etc.  We ran 50 hives 24/7, loaded with sensors, for 10 years at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the 90's and early 2000's.  We learned a lot.  For example, one  can put any number of sensor into a beehive, but only a few 1) provide useful information, 2) are rugged enough to hold up, and 3) are tolerated by bees.  

One of the big problems is how to collect, store, and analyze the data.  Adding sensor-loaded hives to the equation takes one's data from a relatively slow 'drip' at the end of the faucet to a 'full-force blast' from the end of the water hose.  We spent years working up ways to properly handle and analyze the resultant, massive data sets.

Our own interest is primarily in serving advanced research (hence our bee mapping LIDAR), DoD, and commercial beekeeping markets - we're aiming our services at providing new technologies that solve problems and improve ease of management and profitability for beekeepers who make their living with bees.  For example, an acoustic scanner for bee pests and diseases is an expensive toy for a backyard beekeeper; it could revolutionize bee management for large beekeeping operations.  LIDAR can help develop strategies to optimize pollination or study how bees forage or whether chemicals really do disrupt foraging patterns, or where drones hang out.

Since we've enough on our plate serving these markets - the enabling  technologies have only fallen in place over the last two years (small-size, powerful processors, low power draw, and relatively  inexpensive), we're focused on Beta-testing in real beekeeping operations.  We'll be presenting the results in Sept.

We are working with Arnia, an established firm in Europe, that can provide now, cell phone communications based systems that are relatively inexpensive and aimed more at the small scale beekeeper and the type of research claimed by Open-Source.  They've already got systems up and running, experiments going in Europe.  So, no sense in us re-inventing that wheel.

Several companies already provide scale-hives with communications.  Some are scale manufacturer's who added communications to their products, some are bee supply companies that added scale hives to their lines.  Originally based in Europe, there are now companies in NZ, Middle East, and  even US (e.g. Mann Lake) selling Scale Hives.  The quality of the scales range from very good to down-right cheap - if you live in N. Dakota, be sure you don't buy the latter.  And, NASA started a scale-hive research project a couple of years ago.

Then there's the growing topic of chips on bees.  Howard Kerr at Oak Ridge did it first, then Joe Riley in Europe.  We put the first true Radio-Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) on a bee working with Battelle Pacific NW labs, but it was too heavy, and gluing tags on bees wasn't fun.  So, we turned to LIDAR that doesn't need anything on the bee - it recognizes the bees by size, movement, and wing-beat frequency.  However, in pesticide testing, in native bee studies, and now on a 5000 bee effort, there's a study of bee movement ongoing in Australia.  I'd like to see all of these folks in Missoula, compare notes.  There have also been at least two major projects in the US aimed at producing the next generation technologies - funded by DoD; so there may be better, lighter, longer-range chips available then simply adapting nanoblock RFID chips.

With all of this going on, it's time to Develop this as a Discipline, set up a Society for Sharing of Ideas, Information, Publishing Results.  We encourage people to come to Missoula, and contact me if they have something to add to the program.  I've scheduled a full-day to this topic (Wednesday), but WAS is ongoing through Saturday, so if I get an unexpectedly large group, we can extend this into a Two-Day workshop.  I do need to nail down the final speakers soon, I'll be issuing the final call for papers next month.

Thanks  Jerry

P.S.  We're inviting everyone to bring their technology to demonstrate - we can make hives available.


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