So I have been doing a lot of research on asset tracking of livestock (chickens/birds) with some success, but really nothing that is really cheap or feasible at this point. So I am looking at a couple of options that I can try:
- I was thinking of setting up some radio transmitters in a triangle pattern across the area and do regular pings on the transceivers to get a general triangulation. This seems to be promising, but again maybe out of reach
- I have looked at GPS and active GPS. Still trying to find anything here that may work so any resources would be of help
- Lastly, this is my most recent thought and help would be appreciated. Would it be possible to put a tag on the birds that either had a unique pattern or number and use a camera to take shots at a regular interval and using identification of the tags, place the asset in an approximate location? Similar to facial recognition, but using some sort of coded tag that could be deciphered, like a QR code that could be printed for each bird.
I do not need exact placement of the bird, just snapshots to really get a bird count to ensure that the birds are not missing or dead. We are looking at no more than 30 birds tops at this point, and I was thinking of placing five cameras one in each corner and one on the coop to cover the area. On schedule, take pictures, do a recognition from each camera, and record results. As a secondary function, the cameras could be motion activated at night to take pictures of any predators.
Does anyone have any links to resources for cameras that could do this? Is there a better way perhaps an IR camera to read the tags? Any ideas or help would be so very much appreciated.
John