by Rod Hughes

Leave it to a Tico to devise software to help in the most peaceful of passtimes—birdwatching.
Biologist (and saxophonist) Arturo Castro has invented software that recognises and identifies birdcalls, reports the wire service ACAN-EFE. So far his software will differentiate between 126 calls of five species but he hopes to eventually expand it to 100 species, identifying “quality, behavior and location,” he explains.
His invention was developed as part of his masters in information technology at the University of Costa Rica but Castro hopes to refine it so it may be used by not only conventional computers but also GPS cell phones and hand-held computer devices. Expected to come on the market in a year, the aid will not only help ecologists and other natural scientists but in education and tourism.
Just sing into the microphone, birdy…