In an interview from a few months ago, Arduino’s founder Massimo Banzi told me that it is not enough to just say we want to teach 3D printing in schools. He explained that, first, we need to figure out what we can really teach about and with 3D printing. One thing could be how to use 3D printing, as well as coding and low-cost electronics, to learn about our natural surroundings, and that is what Naturebytes, a UK-based community of conservationists, educators, digital makers and designers, proposes with its Wildlife Cam Kit project.
Developed over the course of the past two years, making intensive use of desktop 3D printing, the Wildlife Cam Kit is now live on Kickstarter, where it is seeking to reach its £28,995 funding goal in order to to pay for the camera case tooling. Naturebytes’ intention is to make the Wildlife Camera Kit CAD designs available as free downloads for the community.
The full system consists of a remote, motion sensitive wildlife camera that is waterproof, has a real-time clock, and a cover that is designed to be attractive and, yet, easy to camouflage and hard to detect. New add-ons will be progressively added over time for the entire community to benefit from. The first available one is the “bird-feeder arm”.
What the Wildlife Cam offers is the possibility of taking high-resolution, stealth photos without disturbing the animals and without a person being present. “The great thing [about this camera] is that is can be put on a bird table or fixed to a tree and it hides away and takes pictures not just of the wildlife we see but the wildlife that comes out when we’re not there,” explains Naturebytes co-founder and designer Jon Fidler.
Jon is also the founder of UK studio Modla, a design consultancy firm through which he has undertaken several high profile projects involving 3D printing (which we have covered many times times the past on 3DPI). He also grew up on a farm, at close contact with nature, thus, perfectly embodying Naturebytes’ desire to combine both.
He co-founded Naturebytes together with Stephen Mowat, a conservation ecologist, who runs a programme of research, conservation, and public engagement projects at the Zoological Society of London, and Alasdair Davies, Technical Advisor for the Zoological Society of London’s Conservation Technology Unit who researches the use of technology toward a better understanding of the natural world.
Naturebytes is a not-for-profit social enterprise that was developed with the support of Nesta and the Raspberry Pi Foundation. All income goes towards it goals of furthering digital learning, wildlife conservation and open innovation.
The kit is already available either as a Developer Kit (priced at £30), where the user can use his or her own electronics and 3D print his or her own case, or through more complete versions that go all the way to supplying a keyboard, mouse, and cables to turn the Wildlife Cam into a full fledged micro-computer.
Through this project, which is ideal for both FabLabs and classrooms, the Naturebytes team wants to show that technology can be used to promote and facilitate the interaction with our natural surroundings, thus achieving the double goal of bringing 3D printing to the classroom and also using it to help children learn about and experience nature: two birds with one 3D printed cam.
