After ten years of R&D, Smart Phones finally have the processing speed to enact our patented acoustic pest and disease diagnostics.  We are currently in Tier 2, private beta testing and calibration of the App.  


We had not planned on advertising any of  this until all of the testing and calibration was completed.  Dr. David Firth, our Business Information Technology adviser, contacted the Economist to see if they might have an  interest in doing a story - some time in the future, maybe in a few months?  David quickly got a surprise phone call, and this is the result:


https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21739645-matching-honeybee-noises-their-ailments-new-app-listens-problems



We have two versions of the App:  1) a Community Version aimed at small scale beekeepers, and 2) a Pro version of the App with Pro and Team levels aimed at Commercial Beekeepers, Bee Inspectors, and Bee Researchers.    The main differences are that the Community Version only provides on screen analysis results, whereas the Team/Pro combination Version of the App adds the ability to send data reports back to the user in the form of comma delineated data files.  


Our private beta test groups are by invitation only.  Currently, we have invited the ~ 100 Graduates of our University of Montana Master Level Online Bee Course to  review the Community/Consumer version of the App.  In addition we have approximately a dozen testers who are critical to calibration of the App diagnostic variables; mainly select commercial beekeepers, researchers, and state bee inspectors.


At this time, we have a lot of testing and calibration work to do, and we are self-funded.  All testers are people that we know and trust and have confidence in their ability to properly manage bees and have the skills necessary to recognize bee pests and diseases.  For Tier 3, we will expand our test group, and I will let everyone on Bee-L know when we are ready for Tier 3 - probably next fall.  


We are looking for a few additional testers who can help us calibrate the Pro/Team versions of the App.  Our current group has some queen and package producers, some migratory honey production and pollination beekeeping operations, some state bee inspectors, and some researchers.  For example, we have an Africanized bee expert from Brazil and a Master Beekeeper from South Africa, who can provide us with calibration recordings for AHB that we can compare with AHB from southern states.


We are looking for anyone who can provide calibration data for any or all of our seven monitored bee health variables.  For example, varroa mite researchers with 'varroa farms', AFB and EFB foul brood, any Nosema trials, ongoing studies where colonies are periodically inspected and ranked for severity of a pest, disease, or colony health condition.   If you can help us calibrate the App, we will  provide a free version of the Pro/Team App.  Please contact me off-line at [log in to unmask]


Finally, many of you may be familiar with other acoustic apps - primarily from Europe, and others doing acoustic work in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere.  That is good to see - it shows that others are finding a use for acoustics with respect to understanding  bee colony dynamics.  


The first example of bee management using acoustics was Eddie Woods in the UK.  His 1965 Apicdictor screened for colonies about to swarm based on specific sound frequency.  Howard Kerr, at Oak Ridge National Laboratories later designed and tested a device to detect AHB based on flight  sounds - using the rationale that body size of AHB and EHB was different and that difference produced a small but significant difference in wing beat frequency.  


In the early 2000s, we started examining bee colony sounds under SBIR awards from DoD and USDA.  At the EAS, Vermont, Conference of 2012 we showed our hand-built, Acoustic Scanner, using  our patented (2006-11, US and Canada), acoustics scanning technology, for the first time.  It worked, but it was bulky and expensive.  Not surprisingly, Hu Evans of Arnia, who we first met in Vermont, quickly added microphones to his company's scale hives, and then others began looking at acoustics.  


By the Missoula, 2014, meeting of WAS, we had many more attendees who were looking at hive electronics than we had at EAS in 201, although at that time, we, Arnia, and Arnia equipment users, were the only ones presenting results of acoustic monitoring.  The next Workshop on electronics and beehive monitoring will be at the 2018 EAS - unfortunately  I've got too many other meetings that month and will not be able to attend, although I will be at WAS in August in Boise.


All of this  is too say, we're glad to see others recognizing value of acoustics, but we have a much longer track record and our systems can learn, which is why I am looking for opportunities to refine our App calibrations.











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