It's no secret that many of New Zealand's native birds are under threat from introduced predators such as possums, stoats and rats. The Cacophony Project is developing digital technologies to monitor bird populations and eliminate predators in ways that could be many times more effective than current approaches. The project's software and hardware is completely Open Source project and see contributions from a cross section of people outside of the core development team. Our talk will give a brief introduction to the project, our approach and why Open Source is the right model for this project. We'll then discuss some of the things we've been up to lately including: - development of a machine learning model which automatically identifies predators from thermal video footage - experiments with audio based lures - lessons learned while making hardware work in rugged natural environments - turret mounted lasers!

Clare McLennan is a seasoned developer and agile development coach who has worked on a variety of projects including games, large scale web sites and test automation. She's passionate about the outdoors and the environment. Menno Finlay-Smits is an experienced developer and tech lead who has worked on numerous projects including vehicle guidance systems, network appliances, financial exchanges and distributed systems. His work and personal interests often involve using and contributing to Open Source software.