Contact: mketchen@octevue.com
AvianActs
https://www.avianacts.com
A quantitative study of aspects of avian behavior
Avian Navigation
Birds demonstrate a wide range of highly developed orientational and navigational capabilities. A technological grand challenge in this area is to develop a GPS-like navigation system requiring only the existing naturally occurring infrastructure (magnetic field, light from celestial objects, acoustic waves, olfactory and other physical inputs). Such a system would be of high strategic value for both military and civilian use, especially in the event of disablement of the GPS infrastructure by either intentional acts of an adversary or by natural causes. Initial focus will be on positioning OcteVue LLC to work in a consulting role with clients in this area.
- 2021 agenda: Review literature on avian behavior and navigation in general. Augment with home yard observations, field trips, university visits and conferences. Obtain, set up and use optical/IR, acoustic, and magnetic equipment for non-invasive observation, recording and analysis of avian activity and response, with observations and findings recorded in AvianActs database.
- Experimental: Exercise established capability for applying step DC magnetic field changes in the range of 0 to 35 Gauss to individual non-migrating and migrating subjects and evaluating their response. Extend these measurements to low amplitude RF magnetic fields at frequencies up to 10 MHz. Configure apparatus to be field deployable with Li-ion battery powering. Continue work on optical and IR imaging of avian subjects to reveal aspects of behavior and physiology at different life cycle stages. Investigate non-intrusive techniques such as vocalization analysis for identifying individual birds as an aid to tracking their behavior.