Tweeting Bird Feeder Brings Wildlife Closer To The Internet Of Things
The Feeder Tweeter is a solar-powered, motion-sensing device that takes photos and uploads them as birds land on it.
Manifold‘s Feeder Tweeter is a solar-powered, motion-sensing bird house that snaps photos of the birds and uploads them to Twitter as they land on it. Their creation exemplifies the trend of connecting everyday objects to the Internet.
The idea was first thought up back in 2008 but due to budget issues, timing, limited hardware and hardware hacking skills, it was put to one side. This year, the team decided to reopen the project and make it a reality.
They built an autonomous solar-powered bird feeder that detects motion, captures photos and uploads them to Twitter. They also decided to open source the project and have provided details about building the device, along with links to software and hardware diagram downloads.
The latest version of the Feeder Tweeter features a 5 megapixel camera, a passive infrared sensor and a PING ultradistance sensor, and a new light sensor has been added to verify when there is enough light for a good picture.