October 2026: Our First Observation Camera Goes Live

The Surface Sand Boa Project has reached its first major engineering milestone. Our test rack is assembled, and our first ANNKE 12 MP PoE camera is streaming video from it around the clock.

The camera covers two test tubs at once. They hold test subjects, a rubber snake and a toy lizard, so we can tune the system without disturbing a real animal.

That lets us start answering engineering questions before any formal behavioral research begins. Can one camera reliably watch more than one enclosure? Are the ID labels on each tub readable on video? How do lighting and reflections affect the picture? (So far: a flashing TV in the room shows up as fake movement, which is exactly the kind of thing we need to find now.) Can the feed stay stable enough for continuous observation? And how should the software tell real behavior apart from missing or unusable footage?

These questions matter because reliable observations need reliable instruments. A camera outage must count as missing data, never as time the snake spent underground.

We are also testing how a sponsor sign can sit in the camera's view without getting in the way of the animals or the measurements.

Next: refine camera placement, finish wiring the full rack for heat and light, keep developing the software, and validate the whole system.

This milestone does not mean we have started collecting scientific results. It means the research concept is becoming a working technical system. The goal is the same as ever: build the tools, validate the methods, and let the evidence guide the conclusions.