Forum: Bee health guru app

All About the Bee Health Guru Smartphone Application (BHGA)

History and Rationale

The Bee Health Guru smartphone application is designed for electronic colony health management. It is based on analyzing the sounds of a honey bee colony and is the culmination of over ten years of intensive research. The app, however, will not be accurate, unless tuned for a variety of smartphones and regional variations in bee colony sound. This is a long-term project and timing is unknown as its history has already shown.

In 2017, we mistakenly thought we’d have the app available in 90 days after initial Beta testing. However, based on feedback and issues discovered when the app was being used by beekeepers in other countries – e.g., the bees produce somewhat different sounds compared to North American bees, some upload systems stalled, we ended up making some substantive changes in the app. At that point we set up a Kickstarter Project (May 2019) to recruit collaborators and provide funding for tuning the app going forward.

Bee Health Guru works very well with high-end digital recorders and desktop computers. Until recently, smartphones were too slow. With version 6 of the iPhone and Android operating systems, performance improved. By version 8, analyses on top-of-the-line phones took less than 15 seconds. However, the quality of internal microphones and audio cards vary by phone brand and phone model. In addition, we have discovered that bees have regional accents.

Again, before the app can be trusted as a reliable, accurate diagnostic instrument, we need to screen phones for the quality of the recordings and tune the app for smartphones. To do that, we need app recordings, analyses, and colony inspection reports. The more recordings we get, for example, of colonies without laying queens versus colonies with laying queens, the better we can tune the app to recognize this condition. We literally train the app. It learns the sound patterns. But it doesn’t learn on the phone itself. That’s why we need to tune the app. The more users, the more reports, the more areas, the better the tune. We need to do this for all eight colony health factors.

We are now beginning our citizen science project aimed at tuning the app for various types and brands of smartphones, different types of beehives, and regional differences in bee colony sounds. Unfortunately, as we completed the Kickstarter Project, our database service and upload system were bought out by a big company, who radically increased prices. We have now finished the migration of the app to a new upload and database system.

We’re starting this BHGA citizen science research project with the funding and participation of 653 Kickstarter backers. They will soon receive a pre-release version of the app. We have been working hard to swap out the backend database to our Bee Health Guru app, and we have now completed that work. It was more extensive than one might imagine: first we had to select a new cloud provider, then we had to set up and configure the new solution, then we had to move our old data over and test that it was adequately there, then we had to send new data through the app and test that that data got into the new database, and finally we had to make sure we could access everything we needed in our new database.

We are now at what we believe is the very last step: configuring the app stores (Google and Apple) so that we can get the Bee Health Guru app to official backers. Our most recent test of this threw up an error in that the app stores did not recognize the email addresses that we had registered in their systems! We are currently trying to figure out why Apple and Google do not want to have our app, but we expect to get that figured out soon.

Once tuned, the app is expected to be available in the Google and Iphone apps stores for purchase (small scale beekeepers) or subscription. Please be patient. Notices will be posted when each version of the app is accessible through the app stores. We anticipate a Community app for backyard and small scale beekeepers. We have in development a version for Commercial beekeepers. The Commercial app will allow crew members to scan lots of colonies. A summary report of each day’s testing will be automatically compiled and sent to the appropriate field manager or owner.

Downloading the App for Kickstarter Backers

During beta testing, downloads from the stores at times differ from the standard store formats. Also, some may have not had much experience with downloading apps. This is where official backers can get some help from the Firth family team who will invite them to download the app (it is a matter of setting up permissions). Only official backers from the Kickstarter project will be given access.

Public Forum: This website is a Public Forum that can be read by anyone. Keep that in mind when posting as an official backer. See the section on analysis for more information about this issue.

Steps for Properly Using the Bee Health Guru App

The goal is to obtain good quality recordings, let the app conduct an analysis, and then inspect the hive to either confirm, refine, or reject the app’s initial analyses. Then upload everything to the Cloud so that we can use the data to tune the app for accuracy. This link doesn’t work; again I recommend putting the full contents here as in the section below.

APP_Sampling_Steps.docx

Using the App to Scan Bee Colonies

Consult the linked instruction sheet listing the steps for using Bee Health Guru. Read the cautions about when and how to properly sample colonies. Kids grab the phone or tablet, often holding the device in one hand, and use their thumb to rapidly cruise through all of the buttons and menus. Us older folks tend to stare at the screen, trying to figure out how to use the app. The attached sheet provides step-by-step instructions.

Here is a check list to use to get started file:///home/owner/Downloads/APP_MATERIALS_Checklist.pdf

This will not load? It’s a short list. Put the whole thing here

Acoustic Sampling Steps for Smartphones and Tablets:

Tips:

Pick a time of day when bees are busy foraging.
Turn off auto-rotate in phone’s settings to keep the record button at the top; increase screen brightness.
Record undisturbed hives – do not smoke, do not open hive, do not run noisy engines, do not talk.
1. For a few hives, insert the microphone end of a phone (bottom) or tablet (may be at the top) into hive entrance, with start button facing out, set phone on bottom board, then push start.
2. For multiple hives, consider using an external microphone like the Rode Smart Lav+ or the Dayton Audio EMM-6. In both cases, set the phone down on a stable surface and push start when bees settle.
Insert the microphone into the entrance of the hive, work from side, and do not stand in front of the hive.
Try to ease the microphone close to the center of the bee colony cluster.
For first use, record one or a few colonies, save analysis results, fill out inspection forms and save, and then upload using wireless.
1. Do not spend hours recording colonies to discover your internet connection is slow or will not upload more than a few recordings at a time.

Materials:

Smartphone with the app installed (it is best to place the app on the home screen).
1. For recording many hives, consider taking a portable charger and cable.
Electronic or alcohol wipes to clean phone or microphone tip as needed.
1. Water-resistant Markers, Numbered Tags (e.g., cattle ear tags), or Bar Code stickers for Hive I.D.
Bee-Veil, Bee Jacket, or Full Bee Suit,
Lightweight bee gloves or light-colored disposable gloves (nitrile, vinyl, etc.).
1. Do not wear black gloves! Dark colors greatly increase stinging behavior.

Preparation:

Charge phone and phone charger overnight.
Check that you have the newest version of the app downloaded and installed on the phone.
Practice using the app at a desk or table until you fully understand the basic sampling steps.

Sampling (Recording) Steps:

Turn on and open phone or tablet; find the icon for the bee health guru app.
Touch the app icon; the app should open and bring up a start screen,
Insert the microphone end of phone or tablet into the hive entrance, setting the device on the bottom board – do not hold in your hand while recording.
Tap the record button (it is at the top of the screen, the orange and grey bull’s eye button),
The phone will beep, begin recording, count down to 30 or 60 seconds) and beep when finished.
A 30-second recording should suffice; a 60-second recording may provide a better result.
Let the phone save the recording (automatic) and automatically analyze (~ 15 seconds) the recording.
The phone will beep; show “Scan Complete.”
Remove phone from the hive, look at results (initially these may or may not be accurate – that is part of the tuning process).
Touch Hive Description/ID, enter a simple, unique hive number,
1. Use either your initials or email name plus a number for each hive for Hive Description/ID.
2. If you use bar codes for hive id, you can tap the bar code icon and use the camera to capture the hive ID – no need to type.
Provide the name you use for the location (e.g., Home, Smith Farm, Creekside)
1. The app itself will add the date, time, and GPS location.
2. Touch Save and the phone/tablet will save the recording and AI analysis results.
3. Touch Report and you can fill out a simple colony inspection report, or
4. Touch the Back Arrow to go to Hive Reports, and Touch the Back Arrow again to start a new recording.
  1. For Reports, the percentage is the AI result shown on the red/blue bars, the ? provides help.
  2. Buttons at the bottom of the screen allow the addition of notes, pictures, check completion, save.
Use Back Arrow to return to the home screen to exit the app or start a new recording.
The app records and analyzes each hive then allows for an immediate inspection (one hive) or the option to record all colonies, then return to fill out inspection reports.
It is best to record every colony at a location before using a smoker and opening hives to inspect.
When you are in the range of a fast internet connection, using the Cloud button on the home screen to upload everything.
1. Be sure to enable wireless for uploading; we do not recommend using slow cellular services.
With either cellular service or wireless, the icon bottom of screen links to www.beehealth.guru.

External Microphones for App

External Microphones:

Microphones are a huge issue when it comes to this application as it based on sound waves. For one or a few hives, a smartphone’s internal microphone should suffice. Be sure to put the microphone end of the smartphone or tablet into the hive entrance and slide it as far in as possible and still be able to push the start recording button when the bees settle down. For larger numbers of hives, you may wish to consider having one or more high quality, flat frequency response, microphones that can reach the approximate center underneath the cluster of bees in a hive.

Anyone with more than a few hives will want to use an external microphone, rather than having to slide the phone itself into the entrance of each hive.
In general, the microphone should be small, with good sensitivity, and a flat frequency response curve. The primary bee colony sounds are at low frequencies, although resonance frequencies may be important.

Two microphones that we recommend are:
Rode Smart Lav+ is a small, professional, lavalier condenser microphone, for iPhone and other smartphones.
Cost: $60-80 from box and internet stores.
Pros: Small, reasonably durable, 3.5 mm microphone jack, generally good quality sound
Cons: Cannot adjust recording gain; has a general, rather than microphone -specific, frequency response chart.

Tips:

1. Check that phone has a 3.5 microphone/headphone jack. Some phones and tablets may require a Rode SC4 3.5 mm TRS to TRRS microphone adapter and some of the newest phones require a 3.5 mm to USB-C adapter, ~ $10-$15.
2. Remove lapel clip, windscreen (bees chew on it), and attach the microphone to a thin wire (brass does not rust) to facilitate insertion into middle of hive via the entrance opening.

Dayton Audio EMM-6 Electret Measurement Microphone has a very flat frequency response. Each microphone has been calibrated. A measured response curve available, indexed by microphone serial number. Uses gold-plated XLR output connector.

Cost: $50-$80 from Parts Express Plus
Pros: Individual microphone testing and calibration offers better accuracy. Unit is metal, sturdy. This is a research-grade instrument, solidly built, XLR cables tend to be rugged.
Cons: Chunky, 3.5” x 0.47” (12mm) nose may not fit through shallow hive entrances. Requires a microphone interface like the IK Multi-media, iRig Pre XLR microphone interface for iOS and Android, ~ $40. However, with a 9 volt battery and adjustable gain, the iRig offers control over recording volume.

Tips:
1. XLR pre-amplifier must be switched on to 48 v Phantom power supply to the microphone.
2. Carry spare 9-volt battery.
3. Be sure to have an XLR cable, preferably long enough to lay the phone on cover of the hive when the microphone is in the hive entrance.

Sanitary Covers for Microphones

For those who elect to use an external, probe style microphone – don’t use black foam covers – the bees will go nuts trying to sting the invader. For cleanup, I suggest when you see some gunk, use an alcohol wipe to gently clean – but be sure it tries fully before inserting into the hive – bees apparently don’t like the smell. Obviously, it’s desirable to have some form of disposable cover, especially if you move to other bee yards or your neighbor’s bees or after sampling an AHB colony.

The best solution I can think of is to use an acoustically transparent fabric sock A common test involves attempting to blow through the fabric. If the fabric allows air to easily pass through, it will also allow sound to pass through, making it acceptable for use as an acoustic fabric. Soon as weather permits, I’m going to try paper KimWipes, maybe with a rubber band or bit of tape to hold a small piece over the end of the microphone.

Technology Innovations for Monitoring Bees and Beehives

Please restrict comments in this Topic to announcing new or exciting technologies and innovations. These could be new ways of monitoring bees or colonies, new sensors, bee management software, and other technologies that are not covered in the topics listed below. If the poster is the originator of the technology or is marketing the technology, please disclose the association. Advertising, marketing, sales promotions, claims of being the best or better than other competing technologies may be removed by the moderators of Bee Health Guru.

Please note; this Bee Health Guru Forum provides a means of testing our own- bee health monitoring app. Our primary interest is in a testing and tuning project. We have spent over a decade conducting intensive R&D. We are first and foremost scientists. We see our app as a way for every beekeeper with a smartphone to become part of a worldwide effort to alert, map, and resolve new bee-colony health problems. At some point, we will be marketing our app. But we view our app as only one part of a technological revolution posed to improve bee colony health management. As such, we welcome other ideas and technologies. No mechanic has one tool in their toolbox. As our citizen-science testing and tuning progress, we will be sharing results. Our overall goal is to produce alerts and maps of emerging bee health issues, first in N. America, and then worldwide. We are also aware of other acoustic monitoring systems, especially some built into scale-hive systems. There are also a few phone-based apps. That’s good news. It means that others have found that colony sounds can be informative. However, each research group and company has taken a different path. Eventually, these paths may converge. The initial accuracy and performance of any one of these acoustic technologies should not be used to infer that the approach taken by other similar technologies will be the same. We’re all learning at this stage.

Market Ready Innovations

Have a new tool, a more cooling bee suit, management software, bee, and hive monitoring system? If it’s on the market and available for purchase, add a post here (limited to 250 words or less) and provide contact information.

Disclaimer: Buyer Beware!

Bee Health Guru allows individuals and companies to post notice of the availability of products for purchase or for free. Posts by individuals and companies do not constitute endorsement or recommendation for the purchase and use by Bee Health Guru or Bee Alert Technology, Inc

Infra-Red Imaging of Bee Colonies

Working with our colleagues at Montana State University, we researched IR imaging of beehives. The camera we used was a very expensive, custom camera, built by MSU for a NASA-related project. The results were published in a peer-reviewed optics journal, and an MSU Graduate Student completed more work as part of her thesis. Fast forward a decade and the availability of IR cameras for non-military and research applications has exploded in the market place. Prices have tumbled and quality has gone up. While still not the answer for all uses, IR cameras have a place in bee management. However, a beekeeper with two hives in the backyard wondering how the bees are doing in the middle of a cold winter, a beekeeper with thousands of colonies stored in an over-wintering shed, and a beekeeper or grower wanting to assess the population sizes and viability of a delivery of colonies while still on the truck are very different applications. For the first, a simple, $250 iOs or Android phone add on may suffice. For ~ $600-700, you can buy a ruggedized, android phone with a built-in IR camera. For business applications, where one wants to get as much information as possible, a higher resolution camera with a combined IR/Digital Camera image merge may be necessary. It’s similar to buying produce at a Farmer’s Market from a merchant using a spring scale versus in a grocery store where certified scales with periodic calibration checks are used. IR cameras can range from $250 to $250,000. The challenge is picking the right camera for your needs.

I’ve written and published a series of articles on this topic in Bee Culture to assist in understanding, deciding whether an IR camera has use for in your tool kit, and if so, which one?

Electronic Smart Hives

The University of Montana put the first beehives in the world online in 1995 with 27 electronic ‘Smart Hives” in Maryland on the US Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds. These hives were part of a hazardous waste site monitoring program aimed at characterizing pollutant distributions from over two dozen military waste sites and to monitor potentially toxic releases from a particularly hazardous site undergoing remediation capping sixteen miles from Baltimore. At each site, groups of beehives with multiple sensors monitored colony activity, environmental conditions and just about every measurable colony/hive parameter. At each bee monitoring location, large cables connected the hives and weather stations to two PC Computers housed in an air conditioned shed. In the middle of the night, each computer at each site uploaded the day’s data and transferred it by telephone line to the University of Montana in Missoula. Subsequently, the electronic hive technology was patented by the Montana University system.

Unfortunately, electronic hives remained in the domain of research until very recently. Large processor size and significant electrical power draw, high costs, and frequent maintenance made these systems unsuitable for routine beekeeping management or research. However in 2012, the introduction of devices like Raspberry Pi, small, affordable, single-board computers, made Smart Hive and other electronic bee management tools affordable. Suddenly, scale hives, hives with microphones inside them, and other technologies appeared on the market. Unfortunately, many of these worked on a bench top, but failed under outdoor conditions. Early promoter and adopters often proclaimed their technology to be the savior of bees from maladies such as Colony Collapse Disorder. If it seemed too cheap to be true, it probably was. For example, there still is no robust, accurate, cheap hive scale. Load cells tend to drift under continuous load, conditioning circuits are needed to compensate for temperature swings, and wires and leads resistant to corrosion and breakage. Devices that sit on top of or in front of hives are easy to vandalize or steal or are run over by truck and hive loaders. The proliferation of products is good news, but buyer beware.

Regardless, these technologies in some form are likely to stay, just as cars today are dramatically different in terms of safety features. We’ve gone from simply air-bags and seat belts to features such as adaptive cruise control, back-up and 360 degree cameras, lane-departure and cross-traffic warnings, and other safety features, with the potential of self-driving probably sooner than later.

At the Eastern Apicultural Society Meeting in Vermont in 2012, the first International Workshop on Bee Monitoring was hosted by Frank Linton and Jerry Bromenshenk. Approximately six presenters actually had monitoring data. In 2014, the Second International Workshop on Bee and Hive Monitoring was held at the Western Apicultural Society Meeting in Missoula, MT. Over 30 presenters and exhibitors took part, and the numbers keep growing.

In 2015, we published an online article reviewing the innovations and progress in terms of advanced, namely electronic-based, bee and hive monitoring technologies from 1995 through 2015. That article titled “Bees as Biosensors: Chemosensory Ability, Honey Bee Monitoring Systems, and Emergent Sensor Technologies Derived from the Pollinator Syndrome, is available for all to read online at:

[url]http://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/5/4/678[/url]

Beehive Security and Bee Management

This topic is divided among several related, but separate categories of equipment. Inside the hive, outside the hive, or on the pallet brands are a common marker – but they can be removed. However, brands remain as a standard for hive identification, and some beekeepers even brand their frames. Recently, some beekeepers have turned to marking their equipment using more modern technologies such as bar codes (which tend to fade, fall off, or get turned inward on a pallet) or radio-frequency identification tags (RFIDs). RFIDs are what’s in the chip on a credit card, or the sticker in the windshield for non-stop passage through toll booths. Originally designed for warehouse inventory in stores like Walmart (one of our colleagues and team members lead the team that designed the film-based RFID tags in general use), these tags have become far more affordable and the readers far more useful in terms of range and discrimination. Tag your bee combs before the foundation is drawn, and the tag disappears – the thieves can’t see it. Drill a hole in your bottom board or pallet, and the tag is hidden. Mount a reader on the headache rack of your truck, and you can inventory every hive in an apiary or stockpile yard by driving through the yard. Mount a reader at a weigh station or border crossing, and a thief going through will be caught.

Passive RFID tags have no battery, nothing to wear out. The reader’s radio pulse energizes the tag and causes it to report its ID and presence. Add a battery and its an active RFID with longer read ranges – from 1000 feet away, or from a low flying plane or helicopter.

Regardless, the real benefit is to optimize your bee management. Tag your hives and pair the tag ID with the queen stock. Mount a reader on your honey extraction line, and automatically record the honey yields for every hive, location, and queen line.

However, RFID’s have a finite read range. Put one on your truck hauling packages or colonies of bees across the country, and you’d only be able to monitor your truck when it passes a reader – which isn’t very likely. Put a Satellite or Cell Phone Transmitter with a motion senor in it, and you can track your truck and know where it’s at any time, anywhere there communications reception. Cell-based work well in some areas, and cellular communications units are often two-way (duplex) – one can receive information from the unit and transmit a signal or instruction to the unit. For example, you could increase the reporting frequency from your own phone. But many areas of the western US have no or spotty cell phone coverage. Hilly and wooded areas, highly urbanized areas with lots of towers, lots of places where the bars just don’t show and communications are iffy. In that case, use a Satellite communications transmitter. As long as the unit is visible to the southern sky, you’ve a communications link, in many cases worldwide. Whether cellular or satellite, the best units have motion detectors, alarm functions, and most importantly, and external data port. With a data port, you can plug in a wide array of sensors. Shipping packages or colonies, with a data port, you can monitor the temperature of the load. If the driver stops for some R&R or food and leaves the truck with the bees out in full sun on a hot day in a desert (e.g., Las Vegas), you’ll get an alert the moment the load’s temperature starts to climb, and you will know exactly where the truck is at and where they driver in likely to be in the driver isn’t responding to your phone call.

With a data port, the transmitter has other uses. Deliver your hives for almond pollination, put the transmitter near a gate. Sink a magnetic vehicle detector in the road going into the field – and you’ll know when someone drives in or out. Got distant locations – put a sentinel hive in place with a scale, maybe a weather station. If the hive suddenly starts ac***ulating weight, you’ve got a flow on, better get the supers on, if they’re not on already. Hive moves (wind or bear tips over, vandal smashes with car, or thief picks up) the built in motion detector will let you know.

These are just a few examples. We’ve been designing, building, and using systems like these since 1995, involved in RFID design and testing since 2000, and finally found affordable satellite (under $200), small (3×3 inch), versatile (with data ports), and reasonable service charges (~ $14-15/month per unit). That’s far less expensive than the $1600 dollar transmitters, big as a dinner plate, with a $50-75/month service charge of just a few years ago. And, the RFID tags have dropped from dollars to pennies (< 30 cents per tag) since 2006.

Our advice, don’t ask another beekeeper what to use – they probably Googled something or bought it at the Sporting Goods store, not knowing what else was available. Don’t buy simply for theft protection. Beehive thefts go up when there are shortages of bees for pollination and rental prices are high, drop when there’s a surplus of colonies. If you buy as a theft deterrent or to recover equipment, that equipment must be in working order, and you need to still have the ID lists. Typical scenario, the beekeeper rushes out to plug in a short time solution, then the problem goes away. Several years later, there’s a new spurt of thefts and the equipment no longer works, is lost, or the inventory lists have been lost – or the technology has changed enough that the old equipment is out-dated. Don’t buy for security alone, buy to improve your company management. Use the technology, push the boundaries, you’ll be surprised at what that can do for improving efficiency, recording keeping, and management decisions.

Topic 4: Analysis, Questions and Comments on the BHGA

Current Update: A Running Commentary on Where Things Stand at the moment; can be updated as things change:

We have been working hard to swap out the backend database to our Bee Health Guru app, and we have now completed that work. It was more extensive than one might imagine: first we had to select a new cloud provider, then we had to set up and configure the new solution, then we had to move our old data over and test that it was adequately there, then we had to send new data through the app and test that that data got into the new database, and finally we had to make sure we could access everything we needed in our new database.

We are now at what we believe is the very last step: configuring the app stores (Google and Apple) so that we can get the Bee Health Guru app to the official Kickstarter project backers. . Our most recent test of this threw up an error in that the app stores did not recognize the email addresses that we had registered in their systems! We are currently trying to figure out why Apple and Google do not want to have our app, but we expect to get that figured out soon.

Thanks all for your patience!

The Bee Health Guru team

This is where a conversation could take place between backers and developers

I don’t know what to put here? Need to brainstorm this area.

1. Where are backers supposed to send in their comments?

2. How are they going to be answered?

I want my info at the end so I can receive comments (private perhaps) etc. I don’t want to have to answer questions, but would like to know what they are and how the developers are dealing with them.

Dr. Malcolm Sanford, retired Florida State Apiculturist, Writer for American Bee Journal, Bee Culture, co-author of Storey’s Guide to Keeping Honey Bees intends to regularly write and publish articles/comments/analyses about the progression of this citizen science project dedicated to tuning the Bee Heallth Guru Smartphone Application. Posing questions and thoughts on this page is one way to insure that they can be distributed to the correct person for appropriate action.

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Forum: Bee health guru app – 2019