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Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations

517 points arnemunthekaas 3 hours ago 84 comments

arnemunthekaas 3 hours ago | parent

Author here. A mic listens to the sounds in my garden, BirdNET-Go (an open-source BirdNET classifier) detects birds by sound, and the e-ink frame draws a real 1800s natural-history illustration of each one as it hears them. Here’s a live web-demo from my garden in Bergen, Norway: https://fugleramme.arnegiacomo.dev

A few things that might be interesting:

- The screen only redraws when the set of birds changes, and dithers the collage down to six colours for the e-ink display.

- Bigger birds sit toward the centre, scaled by real body mass.

- 800+ cutouts across 400+ species, each cut from a real public domain plate. All art is historic and human-made. Coverage is currently best for the Nordics, Britain and Germany (but other parts of the world are in the works).

- Runs fully local on a Raspberry Pi or your homelab (yes, even the classifier runs great on a RPI)

The e-ink panel is optional and it can run web-only in a container against a BirdNET-Go you already have.

Happy to answer any questions!

smeej 2 hours ago | parent

Do you have your image source available somewhere? I'm not going to build this same thing, but I'd love to add some prints of birds to my shelves and, not knowing much about birds, it would help to have a set of pictures I could look through and go, "Ooh! This one!" and learn about them. It'd be a good jumping on point!

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Yeah, all art i attributed an linked in https://github.com/arnegiacomo/fugleramme/tree/main/assets/a.... Check the manifest for exact sources

onionisafruit 2 hours ago | parent

If I were to make one of these as a Christmas present for somebody in Texas, and I wanted to contribute work toward good coverage for the area, how big of a time commitment would that be? It sounds like the kind of hobby work I could get into for a few months.

arnemunthekaas 1 hour ago | parent

Less than you'd think, because you likely wouldn't need full "Texas coverage", you mostly need the birds that actually show up. BirdNET filters by location, you'll likely need a couple of dozen. Over the summer I've had about 40 visitors where I live.

Right now the coverage of North America is relatively sparse, but the interest has been high and I'm hoping for some contributions.

Edit: For North America the most obvious source is Audubon's Birds of America, which is public domain and should provide a lot of coverage. This collection includes some beautiful plates.

firmretention 2 hours ago | parent

This is such a cool idea and I want to build one. I wish I had this kind of creativity. I can do the hardware/software side, but great ideas elude me.

away0g 2 hours ago | parent

are you setting yourself up to record ideas as they happen?

mungoman2 2 hours ago | parent

Now this is why I come here!

Amazing thing, will replicate.

jiwidi 2 hours ago | parent

Isnt this a fork* of https://x.com/WarnerTeddy/status/2060018688645115964?

https://github.com/Twarner491/AvianVisitors

https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/

Or maybe im missing to see is the same author? It went viral a few months ago

tencentshill 2 hours ago | parent

This one seems to be more North European focused

jiwidi 2 hours ago | parent

Its awful close with no attribution or mention of the original project, which should be the minimum i feel like.

KaiserPro 2 hours ago | parent

true, but we are assuming that the author is aware of the other repo

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Original author here. Fair point, this project was one of my inspirations, but I chose to take a different approach. This uses public domain natural history art and builds on top of BirdNET-Go which is a popular way of self-hosting bird-detections. (This is really a BirdNET-Go companion, as it cannot run without).

I've seen other similar projects pop up like https://github.com/veteranbv/inky-bird-frame and https://github.com/adamoberley/HABirdDashboard/tree/HABirdDa..., each with their own spin.

jiwidi 2 hours ago | parent

That's fair, and I totally get wanting to give it your own spin.

I still think it would be good to acknowledge the original project that sparked the idea, especially now that you've mentioned it was one of the inspirations.

Definitely keep going with yours and evolve it further. That's how good projects grow. But for a healthy open source community, I think we should make a point of crediting the people whose work inspires us. Otherwise, over time, it can discourage people from sharing their projects publicly in the first place.

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Thanks, I’ll do that, and ofc link to this beautiful poster I have that actually originally sparked the idea: https://www.axelthorenfeldt.com/news/wwf-verdens-naturfonds-...

hnbad 58 minutes ago | parent

Contrary to the Great Man version of how we mostly talk about history, scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs and such have historically often occurred multiple times in multiple places often in close proximity time-wise but otherwise completely unrelated to each other. This of course makes sense if you consider that history seems to be primarily driven by material conditions (e.g. steam engines were known to Ancient Greece but their usefulness for industry simply hadn't occurred to them because they lacked the prerequisites to make them useful and neither economic efficiency nor access to cheap labor were significant enough concerns - plus there was no patent system of course).

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether one should expect the demographic of this website to be especially invested in the Great Man narrative but trying to convince them that two people can independently have similar-sounding ideas involving similar-but-different technology is probably an uphill battle. Just be glad you're not composing music for a living because there's literally an entire industry built around the idea that it's impossible for two people to come up with similar melodies without knowingly or unknowingly copying eachother and that it's very important that one of them (or rather the company they had to sign a deal with in order to make any money off their music at all) 100% owns that exact melody and should be paid by anyone who wants to use it.

Next time you have an idea you should just file a patent tbh - the insistence on prior art invalidating the work seems to be quite similar but at least if you're granted a patent you can shake down "copycats" for money.

arnemunthekaas 1 hour ago | parent

Added, see README. Thanks for the feedback!

carb 2 hours ago | parent

I agree I would expect a reference. Another difference between this an AvianVisitors is the image sources. AvianVisitors is all AI generated with a consistent prompt, but OP's is using chiefly public domain images with retouching by AI as needed.

jiwidi 2 hours ago | parent

Yeah agree

I understand OP is continuing the work and improving it as he sees fit, but that in my mind is a fork and should aknowledge the initial work that sparked it.

Maybe i'm wrong tho and this is completely parallel work! Waiting for OPs reply

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Hi, yeah I'm not basing any of my coding or feature-work on that project. My biggest source of inspiration is actually just a paper poster I have hanging on my wall https://www.axelthorenfeldt.com/news/wwf-verdens-naturfonds-.... I wanted to make a version of that, showing the actual birds in my garden.

delichon 2 hours ago | parent

I accuse you of having good taste.

martin- 1 hour ago | parent

A fork implies that it builds upon code from another repository. I wouldn't use the word fork to mean "inspired by". I think it takes away from the effort that the author has put in. Anyone can create a fork of a project with the click of a button.

wccrawford 2 hours ago | parent

The new one appears to use real art from real humans, instead of AI art that was fixed.

And just because 2 things do the same job doesn't make one a "copy" of the other.

jiwidi 2 hours ago | parent

My mistake for calling it "copy", should have said fork maybe (?)

They are awful close to still require a reference to the original project imo. They are achieving the same output (identify birds and display them in a frame display all hosted in a raspberry pi) with that twist to how to generate the art.

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Author here: I'll take any feedback and critisism. I haven't based any of my work directly on his project, but will be referencing it as a similar one in the readme, as well as e.g. https://github.com/veteranbv/inky-bird-frame.

jdiff 2 hours ago | parent

What is "the new one"? The old one used AI, and this one seems to as well.

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Author here: It doesn't, well at least not art-wise. All sources are attributed in https://github.com/arnegiacomo/fugleramme/blob/main/assets/a... and https://github.com/arnegiacomo/fugleramme/blob/main/assets/a...

stetrain 1 hour ago | parent

From the link: "Half the point of this project is showing off some amazing public-domain natural-history illustrations. Over 800 cut-outs covering more than 400 species, every one taken from a real plate and hand-curated for this project (no art is AI-generated, though some has been retouched with AI)."

bradly 1 hour ago | parent

Fwiw an eink display is fairly common tech in the birdiverse. I also have a project that is the same thing.

fnands 2 hours ago | parent

Very cool!

I wish E-ink displays were a bit more affordable. The 13 inch one is £229.50. Does anyone know why they are still so expensive, at least at large sizes?

eckelhesten 2 hours ago | parent

Patents and greed in a combination.

pjerem 2 hours ago | parent

You have to distinguish the fake color e-ink that are used in mass consumer products which are actually black&white e-ink plus an LCD layer and are expensive, and the real color e-ink where each micro capsule embeds 3 to 5 different inks of different colors.

The latest are pretty complex devices, very slow to refresh (hence why they are not used in your e-reader) and also very expensive. But the rendering is way much nicer because it’s real ink that is used to render the colors.

whiskers 2 hours ago | parent

This project will work with a 7.3" display just as well - they are £79.50! https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/inky-impression?variant=5...

Disclaimer: I am the CEO of Pimoroni :-)

fnands 2 hours ago | parent

Yeah, the 4 and 7.3" prices are not bad, the jump to 13 is just large. That being said, the cost per area goes down, so it is also probably fair.

bronlund 2 hours ago | parent

Artig! :)

practicalsystem 2 hours ago | parent

oh I need to build this for my mom she would love it!

misetech 2 hours ago | parent

I would like to build something which can do the exact opposite. Sounds from illustrations.

nsbk 2 hours ago | parent

Very cool, but IMO not mentioning https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/ as an inspiration is a very ugly move from the author

arnemunthekaas 2 hours ago | parent

Duly noted, I'll reference this, as well as other similar projects in the readme. Thanks for the feedback

nsbk 2 hours ago | parent

Fair! Also, I would love to build this myself as I'm moving out of the city and to the countryside soon.

I'm based off Spain, so I'll be happy to contribute if I find missing Iberian and Mediterranean species, or if some cool feature idea comes up :)

arnemunthekaas 1 hour ago | parent

I'm actually currently working on implementing Iberian species, and added some yesterday. There's another user also contributing with some beautiful Spanish birds. Feel free to contribute if you have some cool visitors in your garden!

zubiaur 45 minutes ago | parent

I thought it was the same person. That is how close this project is. Inspiration may be too soft of a word.

RGS1811 2 hours ago | parent

This is one of the most wonderful uses of AI I've seen in a while.

telesilla 2 hours ago | parent

I agree. It's such a pity Cats don't recognize images, would make for wonderful CatTV.

meteyor 2 hours ago | parent

I love this! I have a forest garden with lots of birds. I so want to try this project asap!

lvl256 2 hours ago | parent

What would be cool is if you can put AI to identify individual birds. They all have different calls/voices, though largely indistinguishable to human ears. And you can name them and see when they come for a visit.

bt1a 1 hour ago | parent

Something like fpcalc for soundbytes? Neat

scottndecker 1 hour ago | parent

Why isn't this a thing on Amazon I can buy?

qarl 1 hour ago | parent

I love this new era of AI powered creativity. I expect we're just getting started.

bix6 1 hour ago | parent

super stylin’

dmitrij 1 hour ago | parent

We could also leave fake images aside, go outside and try to watch the birds ourselves. Maybe even let the camera inside, just looking with our own eyes. Real nature. No intermediate.

world2vec 1 hour ago | parent

I do recommend a decent pair of binoculars and the Merlin Bird ID app.

RobinL 1 hour ago | parent

> Half the point of this project is showing off some amazing public-domain natural-history illustrations. Over 800 cut-outs covering more than 400 species, every one taken from a real plate and hand-curated for this project (no art is AI-generated, though some has been retouched with AI).

stetrain 1 hour ago | parent

You can in fact both have an interesting bird-based art display in your home and also go outside and watch birds yourself. Neither precludes the other.

zabriel_goss 1 hour ago | parent

An app like this would be used as augmentation rather than simulation.

stronglikedan 1 hour ago | parent

Or both. Why limit yourself?

gigantino 1 hour ago | parent

Now could you make one for urban noises? (e.g. traffic, trash truck, drunk guys at 3AM etc)

poutrathor 1 hour ago | parent

My granny is almost deaf and I will test the idea for her, for she loves birds

reedlaw 1 hour ago | parent

Frigate, the IP camera security system, also does bird classification: https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/bird_classification...

originalvichy 13 minutes ago | parent

Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about this project. Have you used it yourself? I’ve only experimented with Scrypted for fun, but Frigate sounds like I could operate birdsong analysis without a separate BirdNET container.

gabzofar 1 hour ago | parent

That's a blatant copy of https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/, please.

darvo31 1 hour ago | parent

Love the aesthetic of 1800s illustrations combined with modern tech. Wonder if it ever misidentifies a squirrel.

joshstrange 1 hour ago | parent

e-ink is so much fun, especially when combined with ESP32 or BTLE boards. I currently have 4 around my house displaying book quotes that I've highlighted in KOReader and they bring me joy each time I see them. They are simple and do one thing very well.

I just got and setup a BTLE e-ink driver the other day and according to my calculations it will last _years_ on a single charge (2000mAh) even with multiple refreshes per day (crazy compared to the Wifi ones). Year+ lifetime completely changes the calculus for where to put these IMHO.

I'm considering designing a multiple-screen "art" piece to hang on my wall and playing around with various ideas (on both content and design).

LLMs + 3D Printer + e-ink is my new favorite hobby.

buffet_overflow 1 hour ago | parent

Years on a wall mounted eink screen sounds super interesting. What are you using for the power delivery/battery side of that setup?

joshstrange 35 minutes ago | parent

Here are the parts I bought, I'm still getting it all setup (I have my pictures displaying, working on designing the 3D printed case now, and testing it all) but according to OpenDisplay's calculator [0] I can expect 3.4 years if I refresh the screen once every 4 hours (and currently I'm doing closer to once a day to mimic my ESP32s which need deep sleep and once-a-day refresh to get even month/months of battery on a charge).

Screen: 7.5" Monochrome eInk / ePaper Display with 800x480 Pixels (https://www.seeedstudio.com/7-5-Monochrome-ePaper-Display-wi...)

BTLE board: XIAO ePaper Display Board(nRF52840) - EN05 (https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-ePaper-Display-Board-nRF528...)

Battery: 3.7V 2000mAh - (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FR9GH966)

Picture of it all assembled (no case yet): https://cs.joshstrange.com/zJFvGGPB

The image rendered to the screen is coming from a little service I wrote that renders a book quote it pulls from BookOrbit which syncs with KOReader (annotations, progress, etc). My plan is to set up one of these one each bookshelf/series rotating quotes I highlighted from the series.

Here are 2 ESP32-based screens I have, the one on the left is a an all-in-one [1] and the one on the right I printed the case from the TRMNL DIY kit from SeeedStudio [2]: https://cs.joshstrange.com/knk4Ns2h

Right now only the BTLE one is running OpenDisplay (the other two are semi-managed by HomeAssistant ESPHome) and all the devices are in HA for controlling them, though the ESP32's all deep-sleep for saving battery so I can can't "push" stuff to them like I can the BTLE one.

[0] https://opendisplay.org/index.html#battery

[1] https://www.seeedstudio.com/reTerminal-E1001-p-6534.html

[2] https://www.seeedstudio.com/TRMNL-7-5-Inch-OG-DIY-Kit-p-6481...

tranceylc 24 minutes ago | parent

When it does run out, are you able to replace the battery? Or is it something way more painful than that?

joshstrange 17 minutes ago | parent

It's a rechargeable battery, I just plug the board in (USB-C) and it charges the battery.

pnw 1 hour ago | parent

Cool project! I set up an e-ink frame with this recently as a gift and it's been so much fun creating themed collections.

https://github.com/defl/hokku_epaper

its_ajseven 1 hour ago | parent

Cool Project!! I like it

Chuckles64 1 hour ago | parent

What a cool idea. I might have to give this one a try. I've got Raspberry's coming out the wazoo.

_somu_ 1 hour ago | parent

So cool, I'm going to try building one myself!

MiloLeo 1 hour ago | parent

This is such a cool project. My mom would absolutely love this if I made it as a gift. This may be a good project.

jonplackett 14 minutes ago | parent

I was thinking the exact same thing!

abletonlive 1 hour ago | parent

incredible creativity and inspiring. thanks for sharing this !

ninefathom 45 minutes ago | parent

While I love this idea generally, the scope of the use of generative AI for artwork is too vague for my comfort.

The README.md mentions that "no art is AI-generated, though some has been retouched with AI." Superficially, that sounds mild. Some of the other closely-related projects, however, use different verbiage, or none at all.

For those of us with ethical concerns around generative AI application to artwork, much more detail may be needed before we could decide if this was appropriate for us.

hirako2000 40 minutes ago | parent

Could be for the montage. Is that unfair to say no AI generated the arts, but that AI put individual pieces together?

jrflo 16 minutes ago | parent

What is the ethical concern in this use case?

jarek83 23 minutes ago | parent

Cool project!

On a side note. How do people deal with all the ugly mess birds cause in such settings? I'd love to have such thing but seeing all the white stuff on glass door does not really feel fun to me overall.

originalvichy 18 minutes ago | parent

What do you mean specifically? These birdsong analyzers are sensitive enough that they do not rely on setting up a feeder. It’s obviously dependent on where you live, but in the Nordics, living outside city centres is good enough for both background noise and birdsong from nearby trees/parks/forests. Privacy matters aside, setting a mic up on a balcony or window is enough. Another solution is feeding data from a cheap security camera with a mic through wifi. This way the camera can stay outside in different weather, it’s not super close to you actual living area and splitting audio from the RTSP stream should be relatively easy to be analyzed by BirdNET.

rogerb 22 minutes ago | parent

Super fun project!

thesurlydev 20 minutes ago | parent

Very cool!

I can't help wonder what this would look like for humans. Imagine, set one of these up at a party and it has the means to identify anyone on the invite list. When it hears the person it displays a photo, brief bio, and relationship status.

hugoj0s3 17 minutes ago | parent

intresting!