A number of years ago, hardware designer Kyle Buzzard watched a viral video of a the seagull that stole the GoPro and took pictures taking a look at the camera.
“That sparked amazement and questions, how can we do that and automate it?” recalls Buzzard, which, by the way, has the perfect name for his bird interests.
Buzzard and his colleagues envisioned a sensible AI-powered bird feeder that might discover and take photos of the 1,000 species of birds that could be visiting your backyard.
But there have been two immediate obstacles they’d to beat.
“First, attempting to take high-quality close-up photos of the birds without disturbing them,” explains Buzzard. “Second, to find a way to simply recognize the species. Each actions are very difficult, and the bird stays in place long enough. How persistently have you ever reached for your camera or bird book only to make your feathered friend fly away? “
Buzzard’s design pedigree helped them achieve their goals.
Bird buddy launched their first Kickstarter in November 2020, raising $5 million, which the company said placed them in the top 1% of all Kickstarter campaigns and was the most funded campaign in the merchandise category on Kickstarter.
The result was an ingenious bird feeder that’s something like PokemonGo meets the Ring.
How it really works: The feathered friend flies to the feeder and the AI-powered camera notifies you, identifies the species, takes photos and organizes them into a set.
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Nature is asking
Buzzard hopes the device will help people connect with nature. “Unfortunately, many of us have developed a passive relationship with the natural world,” she says. Because technology absorbs most of our attention, we don’t look up and don’t see the beauty around us. He hopes Bird Buddy may also help solve this problem by putting the natural world in your hands.
“We wanted to offer nature a likelihood in our digital lives,” says Buzzard.
For fun top photos taken by Bird Buddy users, take a look at my bird friend portal.