Published February 27, 2022 | Version 3
Technical note Open

How to build and use "PICT"? A users-friendly practical guide

Creators

  • 1. AMAP Lab, Univ Montpellier, IRD, CNRS, INRAE, CIRAD, Montpellier, France; Plant Systematics and Ecology Laboratory, Higher Teachers' Training College, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon
  • 2. Plant Systematics and Ecology Laboratory, Higher Teachers' Training College, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon
  • 3. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Yaoundé, Cameroon
  • 4. Congo Basin Institute, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Yaoundé, Cameroon; Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Description

This practical guide is an annex to the paper: PICT: A low-cost, modular, open-source camera trap system to study plant-insect interactions. Methods in Ecology and Evolution (Droissart V., Azandi L., Onguene E.R., Savignac M., Smith T.B., Deblauwe V. 2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13618

It is a work in progress and we continue to release updated zenodo archive (this is version 3) with updated practical guide.

Version history of the practical guide

  • Version 2.0.0 (this version)
    • Add support for Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (Green led deactivation issue fixed)
    • Add support for Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye (Picamera installation bug fixed)
    • Add guide in doc (Microsoft Word) format for easier copy/pasting of code.
    • Add information on compatible lens
    • More troubleshooting info
    • Minor edits, typos, etc.
  • Version 1.0.1
    • Fix bug due to wrong indentation in Python_script_videos
    • Correction of typo and minor changes
  • Version 1.0.0

PICT (Plant-insect Interactions Camera Trap) is an inexpensive, DIY, camera trap system based on the open-source Raspberry Pi nano-computer. It is designed to continuously film insect or other small animal activity in the wild. PICT is an affordable and powerful solution for those who desire to film for extended time in remote places. It can be remotely controlled within up to 100 meters using a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop. PICT can be used for a variety of purposes including, and not limited to, plant-insect interactions, bird feeding or nesting, amphibians’ nocturnal activities, predation by reptiles, insect’s behaviour.

The guide provides step-by-step instructions to build, set-up, and use a PICT. It is intended to be accessible to anyone with minimal handiwork or computer skills. The interaction with PICT has been extensively tested on Windows (7 and 10) computers and Android (7,8, 9 and 10) smartphones. In addition, the guide provides solutions for macOS, iOS.

The guide is provided as a PDF (.pdf) and a Microsoft Word file (.doc). The python and Matlab codes provided in the guide are also available here as text files. Note that Word or text formats must be preferred to copy-paste the content. PDF file format does not maintain space characters used for indentation which will ultimately result in a unusable python code.

Please contact us through our GitHub Page if you have found a bug, have a question or want to discuss new idea:

https://github.com/Plant-insect-Interactions-Camera-Trap/pict/discussions

Notes

This study is part of the Congo Basin Institute's Ebony Project generously funded by UCLA and Bob Taylor, owner of Taylor Guitars and co-owner of Crelicam ebony mill in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Field investigations and materials were partly funded by the Fondation pour Favoriser la Recherche sur la Biodiversité en Afrique (João Farminhão and Laura Azandi as PI), the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation and the Aspire Grant Program (Laura Azandi as PI). We express our gratitude to the American Orchid Society (AOS) for funding the Ph.D. activities of Laura Azandi in Cameroon and her stay in the herbarium of Université Libre de Bruxelles. We are grateful to David Roubik for the identification of D. crassiflora pollinators. We are much indebted to Fabienne Van Rossum and Camille Cornet for providing us with the video sequence on Silene nutans L. shown in Video S4. We are grateful to the conservator and staff of the Dja Fauna Reserve, local authorities and communities around the Reserve for their support and help during fieldwork activities. We also thank Ruksan Bose and two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the quality of this guide.

Files

PICT_Practical_guide_v2.0.0.pdf

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Additional details

Related works

Is supplement to
Journal article: 10.1111/2041-210X.13618 (Handle)

References

  • Droissart, V., Azandi, L., Onguene, E.R., Savignac, M., Smith, T.B. & Deblauwe, V. (2021) PICT: A low-cost, modular, open-source camera trap system to study plant–insect interactions. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 12, 1389-1396.