470 pointsby arnemunthekaas3 hours ago36 comments
  • jarek838 minutes ago
    Cool project!

    On a side note. How do people deal with all the ugly mess birds cause in such settings? I'd love to have such thing but seeing all the white stuff on glass door does not really feel fun to me overall.

    • originalvichy3 minutes ago
      What do you mean specifically? These birdsong analyzers are sensitive enough that they do not rely on setting up a feeder. It’s obviously dependent on where you live, but in the Nordics, living outside city centres is good enough for both background noise and birdsong from nearby trees/parks/forests. Privacy matters aside, setting a mic up on a balcony or window is enough. Another solution is feeding data from a cheap security camera with a mic through wifi. This way the camera can stay outside in different weather, it’s not super close to you actual living area and splitting audio from the RTSP stream should be relatively easy to be analyzed by BirdNET.
  • thesurlydev5 minutes ago
    Very cool!

    I can't help wonder what this would look like for humans. Imagine, set one of these up at a party and it has the means to identify anyone on the invite list. When it hears the person it displays a photo, brief bio, and relationship status.

  • Belkinsan hour ago
    This is exactly what I did months ago https://github.com/Belkins/belkins-birdnet
  • MiloLeoan hour ago
    This is such a cool project. My mom would absolutely love this if I made it as a gift. This may be a good project.
  • ninefathom30 minutes ago
    While I love this idea generally, the scope of the use of generative AI for artwork is too vague for my comfort.

    The README.md mentions that "no art is AI-generated, though some has been retouched with AI." Superficially, that sounds mild. Some of the other closely-related projects, however, use different verbiage, or none at all.

    For those of us with ethical concerns around generative AI application to artwork, much more detail may be needed before we could decide if this was appropriate for us.

    • jrfloa minute ago
      What is the ethical concern in this use case?
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    • hirako200025 minutes ago
      Could be for the montage. Is that unfair to say no AI generated the arts, but that AI put individual pieces together?
  • rogerb7 minutes ago
    Super fun project!
  • joshstrangean hour ago
    e-ink is so much fun, especially when combined with ESP32 or BTLE boards. I currently have 4 around my house displaying book quotes that I've highlighted in KOReader and they bring me joy each time I see them. They are simple and do one thing very well.

    I just got and setup a BTLE e-ink driver the other day and according to my calculations it will last _years_ on a single charge (2000mAh) even with multiple refreshes per day (crazy compared to the Wifi ones). Year+ lifetime completely changes the calculus for where to put these IMHO.

    I'm considering designing a multiple-screen "art" piece to hang on my wall and playing around with various ideas (on both content and design).

    LLMs + 3D Printer + e-ink is my new favorite hobby.

  • jiwidi3 hours ago
    Isnt this a fork* of https://x.com/WarnerTeddy/status/2060018688645115964?

    https://github.com/Twarner491/AvianVisitors

    https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/

    Or maybe im missing to see is the same author? It went viral a few months ago

    • wccrawford2 hours ago
      The new one appears to use real art from real humans, instead of AI art that was fixed.

      And just because 2 things do the same job doesn't make one a "copy" of the other.

      • jiwidi2 hours ago
        My mistake for calling it "copy", should have said fork maybe (?)

        They are awful close to still require a reference to the original project imo. They are achieving the same output (identify birds and display them in a frame display all hosted in a raspberry pi) with that twist to how to generate the art.

      • jdiff2 hours ago
        What is "the new one"? The old one used AI, and this one seems to as well.
    • carb2 hours ago
      I agree I would expect a reference. Another difference between this an AvianVisitors is the image sources. AvianVisitors is all AI generated with a consistent prompt, but OP's is using chiefly public domain images with retouching by AI as needed.
      • jiwidi2 hours ago
        Yeah agree

        I understand OP is continuing the work and improving it as he sees fit, but that in my mind is a fork and should aknowledge the initial work that sparked it.

        Maybe i'm wrong tho and this is completely parallel work! Waiting for OPs reply

        • arnemunthekaas2 hours ago
          Hi, yeah I'm not basing any of my coding or feature-work on that project. My biggest source of inspiration is actually just a paper poster I have hanging on my wall https://www.axelthorenfeldt.com/news/wwf-verdens-naturfonds-.... I wanted to make a version of that, showing the actual birds in my garden.
          • delichon2 hours ago
            I accuse you of having good taste.
        • martin-an hour ago
          A fork implies that it builds upon code from another repository. I wouldn't use the word fork to mean "inspired by". I think it takes away from the effort that the author has put in. Anyone can create a fork of a project with the click of a button.
    • bradly2 hours ago
      Fwiw an eink display is fairly common tech in the birdiverse. I also have a project that is the same thing.
    • tencentshill3 hours ago
      This one seems to be more North European focused
      • jiwidi3 hours ago
        Its awful close with no attribution or mention of the original project, which should be the minimum i feel like.
        • arnemunthekaas2 hours ago
          Original author here. Fair point, this project was one of my inspirations, but I chose to take a different approach. This uses public domain natural history art and builds on top of BirdNET-Go which is a popular way of self-hosting bird-detections. (This is really a BirdNET-Go companion, as it cannot run without).

          I've seen other similar projects pop up like https://github.com/veteranbv/inky-bird-frame and https://github.com/adamoberley/HABirdDashboard/tree/HABirdDa..., each with their own spin.

          • jiwidi2 hours ago
            That's fair, and I totally get wanting to give it your own spin.

            I still think it would be good to acknowledge the original project that sparked the idea, especially now that you've mentioned it was one of the inspirations.

            Definitely keep going with yours and evolve it further. That's how good projects grow. But for a healthy open source community, I think we should make a point of crediting the people whose work inspires us. Otherwise, over time, it can discourage people from sharing their projects publicly in the first place.

            • arnemunthekaas2 hours ago
              Thanks, I’ll do that, and ofc link to this beautiful poster I have that actually originally sparked the idea: https://www.axelthorenfeldt.com/news/wwf-verdens-naturfonds-...
              • hnbad43 minutes ago
                Contrary to the Great Man version of how we mostly talk about history, scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs and such have historically often occurred multiple times in multiple places often in close proximity time-wise but otherwise completely unrelated to each other. This of course makes sense if you consider that history seems to be primarily driven by material conditions (e.g. steam engines were known to Ancient Greece but their usefulness for industry simply hadn't occurred to them because they lacked the prerequisites to make them useful and neither economic efficiency nor access to cheap labor were significant enough concerns - plus there was no patent system of course).

                I'll leave it up to you to decide whether one should expect the demographic of this website to be especially invested in the Great Man narrative but trying to convince them that two people can independently have similar-sounding ideas involving similar-but-different technology is probably an uphill battle. Just be glad you're not composing music for a living because there's literally an entire industry built around the idea that it's impossible for two people to come up with similar melodies without knowingly or unknowingly copying eachother and that it's very important that one of them (or rather the company they had to sign a deal with in order to make any money off their music at all) 100% owns that exact melody and should be paid by anyone who wants to use it.

                Next time you have an idea you should just file a patent tbh - the insistence on prior art invalidating the work seems to be quite similar but at least if you're granted a patent you can shake down "copycats" for money.

            • arnemunthekaasan hour ago
              Added, see README. Thanks for the feedback!
        • KaiserPro2 hours ago
          true, but we are assuming that the author is aware of the other repo
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  • hugoj0s32 minutes ago
    intresting!
  • poutrathoran hour ago
    My granny is almost deaf and I will test the idea for her, for she loves birds
  • firmretention3 hours ago
    This is such a cool idea and I want to build one. I wish I had this kind of creativity. I can do the hardware/software side, but great ideas elude me.
    • away0g2 hours ago
      are you setting yourself up to record ideas as they happen?
  • lvl2562 hours ago
    What would be cool is if you can put AI to identify individual birds. They all have different calls/voices, though largely indistinguishable to human ears. And you can name them and see when they come for a visit.
    • bt1aan hour ago
      Something like fpcalc for soundbytes? Neat
  • misetech2 hours ago
    I would like to build something which can do the exact opposite. Sounds from illustrations.
  • pnwan hour ago
    Cool project! I set up an e-ink frame with this recently as a gift and it's been so much fun creating themed collections.

    https://github.com/defl/hokku_epaper

  • darvo31an hour ago
    Love the aesthetic of 1800s illustrations combined with modern tech. Wonder if it ever misidentifies a squirrel.
  • reedlawan hour ago
    Frigate, the IP camera security system, also does bird classification: https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/bird_classification...
  • fnands2 hours ago
    Very cool!

    I wish E-ink displays were a bit more affordable. The 13 inch one is £229.50. Does anyone know why they are still so expensive, at least at large sizes?

    • pjerem2 hours ago
      You have to distinguish the fake color e-ink that are used in mass consumer products which are actually black&white e-ink plus an LCD layer and are expensive, and the real color e-ink where each micro capsule embeds 3 to 5 different inks of different colors.

      The latest are pretty complex devices, very slow to refresh (hence why they are not used in your e-reader) and also very expensive. But the rendering is way much nicer because it’s real ink that is used to render the colors.

    • whiskers2 hours ago
      This project will work with a 7.3" display just as well - they are £79.50! https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/inky-impression?variant=5...

      Disclaimer: I am the CEO of Pimoroni :-)

      • fnands2 hours ago
        Yeah, the 4 and 7.3" prices are not bad, the jump to 13 is just large. That being said, the cost per area goes down, so it is also probably fair.
    • eckelhesten2 hours ago
      Patents and greed in a combination.
  • qarl2 hours ago
    I love this new era of AI powered creativity. I expect we're just getting started.
  • RGS18112 hours ago
    This is one of the most wonderful uses of AI I've seen in a while.
    • telesilla2 hours ago
      I agree. It's such a pity Cats don't recognize images, would make for wonderful CatTV.
  • _somu_an hour ago
    So cool, I'm going to try building one myself!
  • its_ajsevenan hour ago
    Cool Project!! I like it
  • Chuckles64an hour ago
    What a cool idea. I might have to give this one a try. I've got Raspberry's coming out the wazoo.
  • scottndecker2 hours ago
    Why isn't this a thing on Amazon I can buy?
  • practicalsystem2 hours ago
    oh I need to build this for my mom she would love it!
  • abletonlivean hour ago
    incredible creativity and inspiring. thanks for sharing this !
  • meteyor2 hours ago
    I love this! I have a forest garden with lots of birds. I so want to try this project asap!
  • gigantino2 hours ago
    Now could you make one for urban noises? (e.g. traffic, trash truck, drunk guys at 3AM etc)
  • bronlund2 hours ago
    Artig! :)
  • bix62 hours ago
    super stylin’
  • gabzofaran hour ago
    That's a blatant copy of https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/, please.
  • mungoman23 hours ago
    Now this is why I come here!

    Amazing thing, will replicate.

  • nsbk2 hours ago
    Very cool, but IMO not mentioning https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/ as an inspiration is a very ugly move from the author
    • arnemunthekaas2 hours ago
      Duly noted, I'll reference this, as well as other similar projects in the readme. Thanks for the feedback
      • nsbk2 hours ago
        Fair! Also, I would love to build this myself as I'm moving out of the city and to the countryside soon.

        I'm based off Spain, so I'll be happy to contribute if I find missing Iberian and Mediterranean species, or if some cool feature idea comes up :)

        • arnemunthekaasan hour ago
          I'm actually currently working on implementing Iberian species, and added some yesterday. There's another user also contributing with some beautiful Spanish birds. Feel free to contribute if you have some cool visitors in your garden!
    • zubiaur30 minutes ago
      I thought it was the same person. That is how close this project is. Inspiration may be too soft of a word.
  • arnemunthekaas3 hours ago
    Author here. A mic listens to the sounds in my garden, BirdNET-Go (an open-source BirdNET classifier) detects birds by sound, and the e-ink frame draws a real 1800s natural-history illustration of each one as it hears them. Here’s a live web-demo from my garden in Bergen, Norway: https://fugleramme.arnegiacomo.dev

    A few things that might be interesting:

    - The screen only redraws when the set of birds changes, and dithers the collage down to six colours for the e-ink display.

    - Bigger birds sit toward the centre, scaled by real body mass.

    - 800+ cutouts across 400+ species, each cut from a real public domain plate. All art is historic and human-made. Coverage is currently best for the Nordics, Britain and Germany (but other parts of the world are in the works).

    - Runs fully local on a Raspberry Pi or your homelab (yes, even the classifier runs great on a RPI)

    The e-ink panel is optional and it can run web-only in a container against a BirdNET-Go you already have.

    Happy to answer any questions!

    • onionisafruit2 hours ago
      If I were to make one of these as a Christmas present for somebody in Texas, and I wanted to contribute work toward good coverage for the area, how big of a time commitment would that be? It sounds like the kind of hobby work I could get into for a few months.
      • arnemunthekaasan hour ago
        Less than you'd think, because you likely wouldn't need full "Texas coverage", you mostly need the birds that actually show up. BirdNET filters by location, you'll likely need a couple of dozen. Over the summer I've had about 40 visitors where I live.

        Right now the coverage of North America is relatively sparse, but the interest has been high and I'm hoping for some contributions.

        Edit: For North America the most obvious source is Audubon's Birds of America, which is public domain and should provide a lot of coverage. This collection includes some beautiful plates.

    • smeej2 hours ago
      Do you have your image source available somewhere? I'm not going to build this same thing, but I'd love to add some prints of birds to my shelves and, not knowing much about birds, it would help to have a set of pictures I could look through and go, "Ooh! This one!" and learn about them. It'd be a good jumping on point!
    • artexety2 hours ago
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  • dmitrij2 hours ago
    We could also leave fake images aside, go outside and try to watch the birds ourselves. Maybe even let the camera inside, just looking with our own eyes. Real nature. No intermediate.
    • RobinL2 hours ago
      > Half the point of this project is showing off some amazing public-domain natural-history illustrations. Over 800 cut-outs covering more than 400 species, every one taken from a real plate and hand-curated for this project (no art is AI-generated, though some has been retouched with AI).
    • stetrainan hour ago
      You can in fact both have an interesting bird-based art display in your home and also go outside and watch birds yourself. Neither precludes the other.
    • zabriel_gossan hour ago
      An app like this would be used as augmentation rather than simulation.
    • world2vec2 hours ago
      I do recommend a decent pair of binoculars and the Merlin Bird ID app.
    • stronglikedanan hour ago
      Or both. Why limit yourself?
    • an hour ago
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