Even mollusc ca n’t elude wearables . research worker from North Carolina State University have designed what they call a “ usage Fitbit ” to cross freshwater mussel activity as a way to notice weewee pollutant .
The researchers detail their gadget in a paper inIEEE Sensors Letters . The style it bring is two inertial measuring unit ( IMUs ) are confiscate to a mussel ’s top and bottom shells . Those IMUs contain both a magnetometer and an accelerometer , which is the same sensor in your smartphone or smartwatch that find movement . Also , it turns out the detector are pretty precise . They ’re able to notice the slant of a mussel ’s shell orifice with a margin of erroneousness of less than one grade .
“ We ’ve fundamentally design a usage Fitbit to traverse the activities of mussel , ” said Alper Bozkurt , a professor of electric and computing gadget engineering and co - author of the paper , ina press vent .
Image: NC State
The idea is that bivalve — mussel , clam , oysters — are extremely sensitive to their environment , and are therefore good bioindicators for nautical pollution . Sort of like a stoolie in the ember mine , except aquatic . They open their shells to feed , and when it come to dinner time , mussels open their racing shell asynchronously . However , the researchers posit that if a mussel immediately shuts both parts of its cuticle , it could be a sign of toxic substance in the H2O around them .
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Because there ’s one IMU for the top shell and one for the bottom racing shell , researchers can determine if whether a mussel is purposefully close or if a stream just happens to be peculiarly plucky . The IMUs are then wired to a mount up , solar - powered data system that ’s capable of wirelessly transmitting accumulate datum over a cellular net . So , like an invertebrate ’s translation of a physical fitness app and smartphone .
“ folk music have been trying to find ways to measure how wide mussel or oysters open their shell off and on since the 1950s , but there have been a broad variety of challenges , ” Jay Levine , another carbon monoxide gas - author and professor of epidemiology at NC State . “ We needed something that allows the animals to move , can be post in current and collects data — and now we have it . ”
loosely , when mussel are used as bioindicators , we know there are pollutants in their environment because they , uh , go . With this system , it ’s possible that research worker could find pollutants without the mollusks having to bite the junk . And like any good activity tracker , the gadget can also be used to supervise mussel health and behavior . For humans , that generally means system of measurement like resting nub charge per unit , how well you slept , and how often you practice . For mussels , that means thing like what environmental factors trigger eating , whether that ’s touch on by temperature , and if there are harmless reasons why a mussel might shut its shell .
“ While we know a lot about these brute , there is also a lot we do n’t know , ” said Levine . “ The sensors supply us with the opportunity to develop baseline values for single beast , and to monitor their shell front in reply to environmental changes . ”
So far , the researchers have tested the mussel Fitbit for more than 250 hour , but they ’ll have to lead real - spirit field examination to see if this is a viable resolution . A prototype version was able to track four mussels simultaneously . That state , the researchers say that it could easily be scale up to traverse dozens of mussels at a fourth dimension .
“ Our aim is to plant an ‘ internet - of - mussels ’ and supervise their individual and collective behavior , ” said Bozkurt .
So in a nutshell , mollusks have wearables now , and if the research worker have their way , we could end up feature a multi - mussel meshing internet . You bed to see it .
Fitbit
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