BatEchoMon

BatEchoMon Latest News

Recently, India’s First Automated Bat Monitoring and Detection System was created by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru.

What is BatEchoMon?

• BatEchoMon stands for “Bat Echolocation Monitoring”. It is India’s first automated, real-time bat monitoring and detection system.
• The system was developed by bat biologist Kadambari Deshpande and engineer Vedant Barje under the guidance of Jagdish Krishnaswamy.
• It was designed as part of the Long-Term Urban Ecological Observatory at the School of Environment and Sustainability, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru.

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What Does BatEchoMon Do?

• BatEchoMon autonomously detects, records, analyses, and classifies bat echolocation calls in real-time — something that previously took researchers months to do manually.
• It includes:
  • An ultrasonic microphone using a modified AudioMoth device.
  • A Raspberry Pi microprocessor to process and classify calls.
  • A solar-powered battery for power and a Wi-Fi unit for data transmission.
• The device activates automatically at sunset and continuously records audio through the night.
• It uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm to distinguish bat calls from other sounds and to classify them based on peak frequency and call structure.
• The output includes:
  • Spectrograms (visual frequency-time plots of bat calls),
  • Audio files of bat calls,
  • Species-specific statistical data showing call frequency and timing.

BatEchoMon FAQs

Q1. What is BatEchoMon?
Ans. A bioacoustic monitoring system using AI to detect and classify bat species via their echolocation calls, aiding conservation efforts.

Q2. How does BatEchoMon help biodiversity?
Ans. Tracks bat populations (key pollinators/pest controllers), identifies endangered species, and maps habitat changes due to urbanization/climate.

Q3. What tech does BatEchoMon use?
Ans. Combines ultrasonic sensors, machine learning algorithms, and GPS to create real-time bat activity databases.

Source: TH