National Geographic’s Crittercam provides an interesting look at how persistence and new technology can aid product design

By Jeff Reinke, Editorial Director, PD&D

One of the unique challenges facing Crittercam engineers is mounting the camera in an unobstrusive way to a variety of animals in a wide range of environments. These can vary from the frigid water enjoyed by this penguin to the heat and rugged terrain of the African plain.

While imitation can be described as a sincere form of flattery, original inspiration simply cannot be duplicated. So try as scientists might to learn about how animals react in replicated, man-made environments, there's just no substitute for the real thing.

This quest for unaltered feedback on animal behavior helped fuel the development of an interesting product that has proven essential to continuing animal studies.

National Geographic’s Crittercam is defined as a research tool designed to be worn by wild animals. It combines video and audio recording with the ability to collect environmental data such as depth, temperature and acceleration through the use of embedded sensors and a camera.

These compact systems allow scientists to study animal behavior without interference from a human observer.

Combining solid data with real-time, real-world imagery, Crittercam brings the animal’s point of view to the scientific community, and others. So not only is some really interesting video captured, but scientists can learn more about how, for example, marine animals use their habitat, where they feed, and how they interact with animals of their own species, as well as others.

Environmentally Friendly

Crittercam was initially conceived in 1986 by marine biologist and filmmaker Greg Marshall. As referenced earlier, his inspiration was one that few could or would want to duplicate. A shark approached Marshall during a diving trip off Belize, but then disappeared into the murk with three quick strokes of its tail.

He noticed a remora (or sucker fish) clinging to the shark. As Marshall watched the shark disappear, it occurred to him that if he could put a camera in the place of the remora, he could see the shark’s behavior unfold without disturbing it, or suffer the potential consequences of pestering a shark.

A struggling graduate student at the time, Marshall needed funding for his fledgling project. With small research grants from the American Museum of Natural History and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he bought one of the first handheld video cameras and fitted it into a fiberglass housing.
Strapped to the back of a captive loggerhead turtle, the awkward prototype didn’t seem to bother its host. The turtle just went about her business. This was the first indication that Crittercam had potential as a research tool.

A significant obstacle to early development stemmed from the fact that compact video technology was still quite new in the late 1980s. So strapping a camera to a wild animal to study its behavior seemed, to many, too far-out to be taken seriously.

Frustrated but undaunted, Marshall contacted the David E. Luginbuhl Foundation, which decided to take a risk on Crittercam. Dedicated to the study and conservation of highly endangered leatherback sea turtles, which spend 99.9 percent of their time at sea, the foundation understood the potential of a tool that would allow access to the leatherback’s alien world.

This initial optimism from the funding would be short-lived. Marshall deployed the first field-worthy Crittercam on a nesting leatherback in St. Croix in 1989. The turtle steered her massive body through the crashing surf and into the pitch-black ocean.

When the system’s radio signal was lost in the early morning hours, the project nearly sank. The nesting female returned to the beach seven days later—without Crittercam. It took two more years of beating the drums of the animal-borne imaging concept before Marshall happened to meet John Bredar, a producer at National Geographic Television.

Bredar recognized Crittercam’s potential for “the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge”—the National Geographic Society’s long-held mission. This relationship led to the Crittercam's first significant development grant.

In early 1992 a prototype was successfully on free-swimming sharks and sea turtles. More than a decade later, Marshall now heads the Remote Imaging Program at National Geographic where he and his team have deployed Crittercam on hundreds of animals in helping to investigate biological mysteries.

In 2002 the first prototype of a terrestrial Crittercam (designed for land animals) survived its maiden journey on a wild African lion, opening the door to a whole new world of animal-borne imaging research.

Cost VS. Benefit

The size and durability of the camera is obviously key to the Crittercam's performance. Greg Marshall and his team have benefitted greatly from design advance in compact video technology.

In the Remote Imaging laboratory at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., Marshall and his engineering team, led by Mehdi Bakhtiari, are constantly working to make Crittercam smaller, lighter and more hydrodynamic.

After all, the smaller the systems, the more species that can be studied, and the more powerful the instrument, the more information it can gather to give context to the images.

One of the primary features currently getting the most engineering attention deals with how to attach the camera to different animals in not only accommodating their physical differences, but the environment in which they live.

In addition to being sensitive to the impact attaching the Crittercam will have on the animal, Marshall and his team feel that the more refined the attachment method, whether it be a suction cup, harness, fin clamp or safe adhesive, the better the chances of deploying and recovering the Crittercam.

Also, if the Crittercam bothers the animal, the data gathered would not be as accurate in depicting natural behaviors.

For whales, dolphins, and leatherback turtles, special suction cups have been developed. With seals and hard-shelled turtles they use a small adhesive patch. A custom, backpack-like harnesses has seemed to work the best for penguins, while a passive fin clamp keeps the Crittercam swimming with sharks. A collar has also been developed for land animals like bears, lions and hyenas.

Marshall says that while some animals, especially female seals, show initial interest in the package they are carrying, they soon resume their day-to-day life in the wild. In 400 or so deployments, they have lost 12 or 13 systems. A marine Crittercam costs between $7,000 and $13,000.

The next generation of Crittercam promises to be smaller, lighter and incorporate the latest audio and video technology. In order for this to occur, Crittercam designers needed to think outside the box.

This has lead to a partnership with custom part producer Quickparts. The Crittercam team decided that a custom SLS part could serve multiple purposes, and allow them greater design freedom due the material properties inherent with the SLS and 3-D printing methodology - namely the lighterweight composition.

One example includes a piece that will brace and center the controller board that was already connected to the back plate, and serve as the supporting structure for the camera mounting.

National Geographic uploaded their files to the Quickparts website, received a quote and purchased the parts, which were then delivered within a few days.

“Creating direct digital manufactured parts saved us time by being able to install them right away, and saved money by not having to get the parts tooled," offers Graham Wilhelm, a mechanical engineer on the Crittercam.

As is the case with many products in many market sectors, the next Crittercam will be smaller, but more durable in getting a closer look at more animals in more remote or harsh environments.

This will mean constantly updating sensor technologies in registering more accurate data, a more robust enclosure in adapting to stressful environments and improving the wireless communication components to transmit through thicker ice, deeper seas and greater elevations. Since its first conceptual composition in 1987 the Crittercam has gone through six generations of camera design alone.

This development story offers an interesting case study in how determination, new technological developments and outside perspective can each play key roles in producing an end product that meets user and application goals. At the end of the day, technology alone cannot drive design, but only improve upon the initial inspiration.