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Kobayashi Lab
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A lab that attaches sensors to wild animals and connects people and nature through information.
AboutAbout the lab
Toward a society where people and animals are connected through information.
The Kobayashi Lab studies systems in which information systems and ecosystems work together as one, in support of solving environmental problems.
Human contact with ecosystems damages nature, so keeping the two apart is effective. However, natural heritage sites and natural monuments are tied to tourism, agriculture, and forestry, so they cannot be separated completely.
To address this, the lab combines sensors attached to animals (animal wearables) with sensors placed in their surroundings, building systems that connect people with distant nature through information while keeping the two apart.
The lab aims to create an information society in which both people and animals carry communication devices and can always feel close to one another.
Key terms
- Animal wearable
- Small sensors and communication devices attached to the body of a wild animal to record the animal's condition and its surrounding environment
- Soundscape
- The idea of treating the sounds heard in a given place as a unified "landscape of sound." In a forest, this includes birds, insects, and wind
- Sensor network
- A system in which many sensors exchange data with one another wirelessly, collecting information over a wide area as a whole
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The lab studies information systems that connect wild animals and people through sensing and communication technologies. Its work includes interfaces that bring the sounds of distant forests to cities, and networks of sensors carried by animals.
*Illustrative imageAn Interface Connecting Forests and Cities
The lab builds systems that enable real-time exchange of information between the soundscape of a distant forest and people in a city, aiming to use technology to restore a sense of oneness with nature.
*Illustrative imageLow-Power Sensor Networks Carried by Animals
The lab studies a sensor network that makes use of the group behavior of wild animals. The animals themselves carry sensors that detect animal calls, and data collected while an animal is alone is shared and retrieved with low power consumption when the animals are together in a group. Field experiments are being conducted around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
*Illustrative imageUsing Ambient Sound to Supplement Time and Location
Sensors attached to animals are subject to weight limits, and satellite signals also have difficulty reaching near the forest floor. The lab therefore studies methods that use ambient sound picked up by microphones attached to animals as a clue to fill in missing time and location information.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Kobayashi Lab include faculty members, part-time lecturers, visiting researchers, collaborating researchers, academic specialists, technical staff, secretaries, and doctoral and master's students.
- ProfessorHiroki KobayashiPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorJunya Kawase
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images.
- Top image: “Radio Collared Deer In Rajaji National Park” Tapanentert / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- An Interface Connecting Forests and Cities: “Ecoacoustics recording in Rural Illinois, USA” t3xt (talk) / Public domain (cropped)
- Low-Power Sensor Networks Carried by Animals: “Deer with Collar ( )” ShenandoahNPS / Public domain (cropped)
- Using Ambient Sound to Supplement Time and Location: “Shelf Life of a GPS Collar ( )” USFWS Mountain Prairie / Public domain (cropped)
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