Frogs

Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog
I am at the 8th International Information and Telecommunication Technologies Symposium hosted by the Federal University of Santa Caterina (December 9th, 10th and 11th) and I have just finished listening to a very interesting talk by Professor Antonio Alfredo Ferreiro Loureiro (Federal University of Minas Gerais) on "frogs".
Actually his talk was not *really* about "frogs", but about ad-hoc sensor networks used to sense environmental issues. These sensors are very simple (and often "slow") computers that gather the information, then transmit the information via a wireless mesh network to the Internet for processing and analysis.
It seems that frogs are a very good indicator of changes in the environment. In a stable environment they tend to have a stable population, and when the environment starts to change, their population or their behaviors can change rapidly.
One of the indicators of change is their "singing". Certain species of frogs only sing during the day (allowing the monitoring sensors to be turned off at night, conserving battery power) and it is known that only the males sing. Finally, these frogs have different songs for different occasions, and one of these occasions is when they are looking for a mate.
By having the sensors transmit audio through the Internet, or even do simple sampling and analysis locally before transmitting, the researchers can analyze what is happening to the frog population without disturbing them.
I am reminded of a similar project 40 years ago, when I first met a gentleman named Ted Childs in northwestern Connecticut in the United States. At 70 years of age Ted was responsible for one of the "Benchmark Weather Stations" in the United States, a place that was remote, unlikely to change dramatically in the near future, and for which records had been kept for a very long time. Ted had been keeping records on daily temperature, rain fall, barometric pressure and other indicators since he was a young man. Rain or shine, warm or bitter cold, Ted would go out to his weather station and take the readings. Years later the Weather Service contacted Ted and asked him if he would continue doing this and report his readings to them. Of course, he agreed, but it meant that he had to make sure that someone (even if it was not him) went to the weather station every day to take those readings and record them.
I can only think about how much easier it would be today for Ted to have some of these sensors hooked up to his weather station to send the data automatically to his computer, and to have many readings during the day, instead of just one.
Of course wireless sensor networks have many more uses than just counting frogs, but I am sure that Ted, an ardent conservationist, would appreciate how important it was to monitor the environment carefully. I am also sure the frog would agree.
Carpe (gently) Frog!comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.