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

This is the coolest thing on HN that I've seen in a minute. The whole thing is a perfect blend of ideas with the end result of something that feels... magical. Honestly this is the highest inspiration to me as a builder as I just want to create magical experiences, even if they are just small oddities.

The underlying classifier, BirdNET, is a traditional neural network and not an LLM:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2021.101236

Cool project!

For those of you that have a Samsung frame tv and no spare e ink screens:

Inspired by AvianVisitors [1] I made a similar project [2] with an android app for bird detection using Perch, and then displays the birds detected during the last 24 hours with nice art on a samsung frame tv in "art mode".

If you dont want to repurpose an old android device, my app also supports bird detections from birdnet-go and birdweather. It should be plug and play with this project.

Have a look at [1] https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/ [2] https://github.com/simenf/birdframe

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.

Came across the Samsung The Frame variant last month too! https://github.com/simenf/birdframe

So many bird projects recently and I think it’s all thanks to this project[0]

It seems IP over Avian Carriers is finally within reach!

0. https://github.com/tphakala/birdnet-go

As a fellow Norwegian I must say that this is pure art by the developer Arne Munthe-Kaas.

This is a very cool project!

When I first heard of it (through a community member in discord), I wanted to see if I could replicate it on FrameOS (my software for running anything on an e-ink panel), and sure enough, I got quite close: https://scenes.frameos.net/s/bird-field-journal

This is obviously nowhere as complicated as OP's project, but I thought I'd just share that your project inspired me to build something similar too.

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.

Awesome! It's really cool that it uses public domain images as the inspiration, too. And even cooler that you link to the places where you got those public domain images.

This could totally be a commercial product. I picture it being sold with a bird feeder. Maybe it uses a camera on the feeder.

Then have the screen look like a biologists notebook where he sketches the bird and writes a few notes about the time and its behavior.

That's indeed a cool project and it's this kind of stuff that makes HN a unique corner in this digital world. I can classify this project with [1](Ranked #3 as the most upvoted Show HN of all time), [2](#4) and [3](#6) as non pure-software products that happen to also integrates hardware as well.

The only thing I wish to be added is a short video showing the actual frame in action to express motion and sound so I can better feel it. While the provided image (hero.jpg) gives me a sense of the product, I just can't smell it yet. I visited https://fugleramme.arnegiacomo.dev/ hoping for a live feed but it seems just a static image.

Kudos for the author and I hope we can see the next iteration!

_______________

1. I made an open-source laptop from scratch (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42797260)

2. I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48968606)

3. A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19393279)

This is amazing. I wonder if this could be connected to an LLM and render images of birds differently each time?

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

I've been leveraging Birdnet-2.4 as well, but also ultrasonic-pass and activity-v1 to do broader detection with an ecological targeted microphone. This means I can capture not just bird sounds but also bats and some insects, and acoustic events such as jets and cars.

Applying heterodyne transformations to the bat recordings makes them audible which is fascinating, especially when you catch them in a feeding frenzy.

Similar intent with an indoor display, although nowhere near as beautiful as OPs eink display here. I'm more aiming for a real-time ticker, but this design is wonderful. I'm quite inspired by it!

I've been working on this in the background for a few months, if anyone is interested repo with screenshots is here: https://github.com/simonjgreen/OpenObservatory

This is the sweetest thing I've seen in a long time :')

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

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?

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

Awesome! I'm in the middle of setting up a birdnet system for audio recognition, and this is the puzzle piece my project needs!

Any easy way to get started on your own version of this without needing a mic would be to pull birds seen nearby using the eBird API and pairing scientific names. Won't be as accurate as a backyard mic, but will give you a direction to start.

Also if you have old e-ink device laying around, you can likely setup BYOD with TRMNL (or just buy one https://trmnl.com/) and send the bird images as a private plugin

I'd buy this if I could.

Seems like a nice adjacent project to the magic mirror!

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.

I was thinking about building this for a while and now i don't have too, insane. Thanks!

This is amazing project, thanks for sharing

This project is super cool! But the price of the e-ink board is quite steep

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

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

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.

Impressive, reminds me of this project https://theodore.net/projects/AvianVisitors/ I guess the author was inspired from there

I would love to build one as a gift but would need to get it working for Australian birds.

Needs to also have an alarm clock waking you with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4J1zyrW_VQ&list=RD-4J1zyrW_... :)

This is an excellent execution and refreshing to see the thought process behind it. Kudos. the ideas such as these, gonna keep us swim sane and specifically extending far beyond the 9-5 is no longer sideProject category but refreshingly needed one.

Wow! Every human mind is wonderful in its own way. It can come up with ideas that other minds can't even comprehend.

Really interesting!! Awesome work

this is so cool :) thinking about some remixes already with maritime traffic and tides

this is amazing. really awesome

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

I just happen to have an extra Pi and an e-ink display sitting around and I LOVE this idea. Going to try it on my screened in porch - we typically get 10-20 Merlin detections on a decent day so this could be fun!

I built one of these that shows the hacker news front page, nyt front page, my most listened to album of the last 7 days etc.

Refreshes every hour

Battery lasts a few months

Esp32 and a colour eink panel, same as this one I think

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.

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

Bryce Shivers and Lisa Eversman would definitely have this in their boutique. Put a Bird on It!

This is amazing, well done! It would be a great travel piece

Amazing. Best post I've seen on HN in ages.

All I'd get is pigeons and seagulls...

What is the energy label of this frame?

Reminds me of Arthur's jounal

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

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

You should partner with Cornell Ornithology.

I am buying an e-ink display just to try this!

ok. a similar idea, you should put a camera outside your door and do the same for passing dogs.

Cool Project!! I like it

Most whimsical application of local ai so far

Super fun project!

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

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

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

breaking this by putting it in earshot of a lyrebird

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

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

People are so creative.

I love it.

cool proj

Artig! :)

Nice launch, good luck out there.

this is very creative, really cool idea!

coolest implementation of ai application case that i ve seens last months

This is amazing. I want to build this. Curious about the authors “full garden” link, surely he doesn’t get that many birds in such a small space of time in his garden, unless he lives next to a park I suppose?

cool project!

intresting!

Now this is why I come here!

Amazing thing, will replicate.

super stylin’

incredible creativity and inspiring. thanks for sharing this !

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Finally, we solved the problem of converting bird sounds into their pictures without involving human cognition. The great problem and the need had to wait for the great, ultra expensive, data-center-driven AI technology to appear on the horizon. AI is such a good technology that continue to solve many such great problems that humans desperately needed for their survival and progress. All at the a minimal cost of some effect on the climate, which may only slightly quicken the human extinction.

Puzzlingly, no animal species requires AI, which is a mystery that need to be solved by AI.