SmartPhone Upcycling
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- markbreneman
I'm testing out an idea around smartphone upcycling, and am looking for feedback.
The idea is that you donate your old smartphone to a service which converts the phone into a wildlife observation camera. It gets placed in the wild under the supervision of a wildlife researcher and when it takes a photo you get notified with the photo as a reward. A rough prototype is here;
www.thesecondnatureproject.com
The photos would be used for wildlife research doing population density studies as well as conservation.
Any thoughts, or feedback would be appreciated.
- lowimpakt0
there's something interesting here.
Is there a business model? i.e. do conservation organisations pay you for a reduced cost kit etc.?
What will you do with phones that re donated but can't be used (for technocal reasons etc.) - you could use that as a revenue stream? but that would be complicated.
Is this a US based thing? if it is how will you address the cultural issues around recycling? i.e. 92% of US phones currently end up in landfill
- no business model really, viewing it more as a not for profit. Potentially as something that large carrier could do as an end of life service. Your idea around recycling the unusable phones for revenue is spot on, and lastly your point on recycling as it relates culturally in the US is a goodone; I'm hoping that incentivizing them with photos is part of it I'm also hoping that if larger carriers got involved it could be built into their infrastructure of selling you new phones.markbreneman
- ********0
Interesting idea! Nice site... Wish you the best of luck.
Couple typos on the requirements page..
"Currently the we only support Android phones running 2.3.2 or above. If your unsure of what operating system you have on your phone, you can find out by going to;"
'The we' and 'your'
- ********0
Did you not proof read at all? A couple more on contact page...
"The Second Nature Project is service started out of NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program.
The goal of the project is to raise the general publics awareness to the work of Wildlife Researchers while at the same time addressing e-waste in new way."
- ********0
Not sure if English is your first language or not? If not I'd suggest getting someone to go through the site. Lots of missing missing words and bad grammar... Nice otherwise
- See I even added an extra word in there to compensate********
- lollowimpakt
- LolHombre_Lobo
- See I even added an extra word in there to compensate
- markbreneman0
Wow thanks so much for the quick feedback everyone.
@set Thanks so much for all the input and reading through the copy. English is my first language but I'm just sort of rushing to get an idea out. I'll be sure to integrate your feedback.
As a secondary question would any of you actually consider donating to a service like this or what would you see as being the challenges.
- Personally I'd rather sell a working smart phone********
- Just out of curiousity have you ever looked into selling a smartphone? The actual return on them is quite depressing. The hope is that this can be a little more fruitful in that the researchers get something they can use and the consumer who donated gets some reward(intrinsically as well). Thanks for the input though.
markbreneman - I've sold plenty actually. 6 or 7...********
- Fair enough. Do you mind if I ask through who? I'm also thinking about ways to engage these services as well. I really appreciate your input and I dont mean to be a pest so I understand if you'd rather not say.markbreneman
- To friends. On ebay and one to http://uk.webuy.com/…********
- Personally I'd rather sell a working smart phone
- chossy0
Money.
Plain and simple, it's your biggest hurdle. If it is a smart phone 3GS era or more recent then people want a little money for it. It's just not going to fly with them, then second on the rung is family and then friends after those hurdles you then have donations.
I think your best bet would be to ask a provider to give you a few for this and then see if you can't get a few more providers to give you the phones, you know the ones you trade in for money etc. that way it's great publicity for them and the person who traded the phone in gets their wee bit of money.
That'll be £10,000 thanks, my fee for consultation.
- Point well taken Chossy. Money is always a challenge in these sorts of things. I'm hoping that the service is more for those who aren't looking for extrinsic reward but more for intrinsic rewards. Partnering with a provider is a great idea though as many already have typical recycling programs, and this could just be an extension. Thanks for the input.markbreneman
- d_rek0
Nice idea.
You could try reaching out to a company like ReCellular: http://www.recellular.com/
Don't know where that goes, bu there it is.
- Thanks so much for the compliment. I'll try reaching out to ReCellular for their input.markbreneman
- albums0
http://www.isidorerecycling.com/…
https://twitter.com/IsidoreRecyc…
Contact Kabira if you're looking for advice / info / opportunity.
She wants to recycle everything electronic.
LA based
- markbreneman0
Thanks so much everyone for feedback. I really appreciate it. As a small token here's a .gif from photos taken with some of the donated test phones;
- that's the wild? looks like a zoo.johnny_wobble
- Good eye. It is from the Bronx Zoo, but again at this point the project is only a test.markbreneman
- bwahaha********
- mg330
I'm interested in the tech to turn the phone into a camera for this purpose. Is there a trigger for when an animal walks by? Is it controlled with software added to the phone or connected to it? Do the researchers have to download the photos or are they sent wirelessly?
Really cool idea and nice site.
- I've written a small motion detector app for Android. It uses the camera, and checks frames coming in through the camera, and compares the frames at a pixel levl if there's enough change it snaps a picture. at a prescribed time it uploads to the Amazon S3
markbreneman
- I've written a small motion detector app for Android. It uses the camera, and checks frames coming in through the camera, and compares the frames at a pixel levl if there's enough change it snaps a picture. at a prescribed time it uploads to the Amazon S3
- doesnotexist0
sounds interesting...but wildlife people do already have cameras that do this and they're cheaper than a phone.
personally, if I was going to just send my phone away I'd rather get a balloon kit and send it up in the jetstream or something and see it come down in a random spot.
- a visual roller coaster! disposable phone project? litter the world with e-waste from above.... hehe********
- Not going to lie....that balloon a great idea. And to your point wildlife researchers do have these camera but they are expensive for the most part, especially ones with the type of technology already built into smartphones. The idea behind the service is that the wildlife researchers could apply and get donated phones for free to supplement their work.
markbreneman
- a visual roller coaster! disposable phone project? litter the world with e-waste from above.... hehe
- ********0
What's a little confusing is how you piggy back on the idea that this is an iPhone project, but illustrating little iPhones everywhere...
but then go on to say in your list of requirements... " we only support Android phones running 2.3.2 or above. "
- but = by...********
- Thanks OMG, Good point. The service will eventually be cross platform hence the iPhone, but to your point maybe it's better to render generic smartphones at the moment. Your the first one to commment on the sketches (did they make sense outside of the iPhone) for the steps?markbreneman
- but = by...
- fadein110
nice but export the big central logo again - it's ropey around the edges.
- was going to write this, love the project thoughGeorgesIV
- and me yep and nice sitefadein11
- GeorgesIV, and fadein11
Thank you for the compliments, and the bit about the logo, but I'm not seeing it. The website is repsonsive, so it might be related to that. If you resize your browser window does it change at all?markbreneman