Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
10 Automated Video Capture Bird Feeder with Data Collection
 Colten Brunner
John Golden
Kevin Li
 Nikhil Arora design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
photo1.jpg
photo2.jpg
presentation1.pptx
proposal2.pdf
video
# Automated Video Capture Bird Feeder with Data Collection

Team Members:
Kevin Li (kli56)
Colten Brunner (cbrunner)
John Golden (jgolden4)

# Problem

Many nature enthusiasts enjoy watching birds outside of their windows with homemade or store bought feeders. This practice has been going on for many years, but until recently it has been impossible to see the birds feeding without being present. With modern day technology, it has become possible to mount cameras onto or adjacent to bird feeders in order to see birds feeding, but in the new era of information technology, there should be more to bird feeders than simple footage. We seek to add onto an automated video capture system by including data capture to analyze when peak feeding hours occur. This problem is one that occurs for common bird watchers and ornithologists alike. Whether it is knowing when to sit in front of your bird feeder or wanting to collect feeding data in specific areas, this is a problem that necessitates a solution.

# Solution
The solution we propose involves a bird feeder that has a camera to turn on when motion is detected. The idea is to have an ultrasonic transducer that would trigger a camera to record for a given set of time if motion is detected. In addition specific data points that would be beneficial to nature enthusiasts would be acquired and stored. These would include time intervals when birds arrive to identify peak bird times and would be stored along with the video footage on an sd card.

# Solution Components

## Subsystem 1 - Video Capture

This subsystem focuses on capturing video footage triggered by the ultrasonic transducer. Components include: An ultrasonic transducer to detect motion and alert the camera to start recording, a microcontroller for processing video data and triggering the camera system as well as transmitting bird tracking data, and a camera that will take videos of the birds feeding.

## Subsystem 2 - Data Collection

Data Collection will be important to the end user and so require a separate system to ingest the data and store it properly for later usage. This will require connections to other subsystems to check for example if the camera is turned on and will require a storage component in addition to a processing unit.

## Subsystem 3 - Power System

A power system is required to power the other subsystems and during testing this will be done through dc power supply with potentially additional voltage regulations. Ideally in the final project all subsystems would be powered by a battery pack.

## Subsystem 4 - Bird Feeder

The bird feeder subsystem is the physical enclosure that stores the bird seed as well as houses all the electronic components. This means that fire hazard concerns need to be taken into account as well as protective measures for the camera due to the outdoor location of the bird feeder. The camera also needs to be protected from the elements while still maintaining unimpeded motion capture.


# Criterion For Success

-Video footage of birds feeding is successfully captured and stored in specific time intervals.

-The motion detector is sensitive to birds and wildlife, minimizing unnecessary background "noise."

-A collection of the time intervals when the birds would arrive for feeding and have the peak times the birds are out.

-The bird feeder successfully distributes food into the “feeding area” until the reservoir is completely empty.

Schnorr Protocol Key Fob

Michael Gamota, Vasav Nair, Pedro Ocampo

Featured Project

# Schnorr Identification Protocol Key Fob

Team Members:

- Michael Gamota (mgamota2)

- Vasav Nair (vasavbn2)

- Pedro Ocampo (pocamp3)

# Problem

Current car fobs are susceptible to different types of attacks. Rolling jam attacks are one of such attacks where an attacker jams and stores a valid "unlock" signal for later. Cars with passive keys/cards can be stolen using relay attacks. Since a car can be the most expensive item someone owns, it is unreasonable to allow people to steal them so discreetly by hacking the fob/lock combo.

# Solution

By leveraging public key cryptography, specifically the Schnorr identification protocol, it is possible to create a key fob which is not susceptible to either attack (rolling jam and relay) and also gives no information about the private key of the fob if the signal were to be intercepted.

# Solution Components

# Key Fob

## Subsystem 1

Random number generation - We will use a transistor circuit to generate random numbers. This is required by the Schnorr protocol to ensure security.

## Subsystem 2

Microcontroller - The MCU will run all the computation to calculate the messages. We will likely use an ATtiny MCU so we can use the Arduino IDE for programming. However, some group members have experience with the STM32 family so that is another option.

## Subsystem 3

Power - We plan on using either a 5V battery or 3.3V battery with a boost converter to power the fob.

## Subsystem 4

Wireless Communication - We plan on using the 315 MHz frequency band which is currently used by some car fobs. We will need a transmitter and receiver, since the protocol is interactive.

# Lock

## Subsystem 1

Random number generation - We will use a transistor circuit to generate random numbers. This is required by the Schnorr protocol to ensure security.

## Subsystem 2

Microcontroller - This MCU will also run all the computation to calculate the messages. We will likely use an ATtiny MCU so we can use the Arduino IDE for programming. However, some group members have experience with the STM32 family so that is another option. This MCU will need to have PWM output to control the lock.

## Subsystem 3

Linear Actuator - We plan on using a linear actuator as a deadbolt lock for demonstration purposes.

## Subsystem 4

Wireless Communication - We plan on using the 315 MHz frequency band which is currently used by some car fobs. We will need a transmitter and receiver, since the protocol is interactive.

## Subsystem 5

Power - This subsystem will also likely require 5V, but power sourcing is not an issue since this system would be connected to the car battery. During a demo I would be acceptable to have this plugged into a power supply or a barrel jack connector from an AC-DC converter.

# Criterion For Success

Describe high-level goals that your project needs to achieve to be effective. These goals need to be clearly testable and not subjective.

Our first criteria for success is a reasonably sized fob. There is some concern about the power storage and consumption of the fob.

The next criteria for success is communication between the fob and the lock. This will be the first milestone in our design. We will need to have a message sent from one MCU that is properly received by the other, we can determine this in the debug terminal.

Once we are sure that we can communicate between the fob and the lock, we will implement the Schnorr protocol on the two systems, where the fob will act as the prover and the lock as the verifier. If the Schnorr signature implementation is correct, then we will always be able to unlock the lock using the fob whose public key is associated with full privileges.

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