Project Settings

Project settings allow you to configure various aspects of your project, from project information and access control to annotation preferences and AI models. These settings are organised into several sections described below.

General

  • Name: name of your project. We recommend something that covers your project’s research questions in a few words.

  • Optional: set a location for your project. This can be anywhere so doesn’t have to match your actual study area. This location is used to plot your project on a public map, if your project is set to public.

  • Description: write a few lines about your project. We recommend to include: the aim of the study, the sampling strategy and the location. For example: ‘We study the community composition of predators in Bardiya National Park, Nepal. A permanent grid of 50 cameras, spaced 1 km apart, was installed. Each camera was checked monthly.’ This text is shown on the public pages, if your project is set to public.

  • Image: here, you can upload an image that is shown on the project’s tile. This image is shown on the public pages, if your project is set to public.

  • Restricted images: this setting controls whether your project’s assets can be accessed publicly by using their URLs. When checked, image URLs in data exports/published data will not be accessible to external users and require authentication by a user that has access to the project. Sequences that contain one or more frames with humans always require authentication.

  • Restricted project: this setting controls whether your project’s name, description and location can be shown publicly. When checked, your project will be hidden from the public homepage and portals on agouti.eu.

  • Restricted locations: This controls the visibility of locations for users in your project. When unchecked, deployment locations can be seen by all project members. When checked, photo processors and volunteers will only see the locations for their own deployments.

  • Deployments are assigned: when checked, deployments can be assigned to specific users as a task.

  • Nextcloud uploads enabled: this setting controls whether users can upload deployments from their NextCloud storage. For detailed information on using NextCloud, see NextCloud.

  • Camera AI viewer: this setting controls whether users can access CamerAI, an AI-powered image processing interface.

  • Observation.org uploads: this setting controls whether observations from this project can be uploaded to Observation.org.

  • PI: set this to the person that is responsible for the project.

  • Contact: set this to the person that is coordinating the project.

  • Organisation: set this to the organization running the project. Contact agouti@wur.nl if your organisation is not listed.

Sampling design

  • Baits: here, you can select none, one or more baits used in your project. The options are a controlled list defined as part of the Camtrap DP standard.

  • Quiet period: if you set your camera to be inactive for some time after each trigger, you can add that setting here.

  • Sampling design: here, you can select the sampling design used in your project. The options are a controlled list defined as part of the Camtrap DP standard.

Deployment defaults

You can define default values for deployment settings, such as default detection distance, camera height, camera heading, camera tilt, coordinate uncertainty, and bait use. The default values can still be adjusted for individual deployments during deployment creation.

  • Default UTC offset: this sets a timezone for your project. Set it to prevent having to enter this for each deployment manually. If your location observes daylight saving time you can adjust the timezone to match. For example: if you run your cameras in Western European summertime, you can set the offset to +2. The description for each timezone are indicative only, and not exhaustive.

  • Detection distance: the maximum distance (in centimetres) at which the camera is expected to reliably detect movement.

  • Camera height: the height of the camera (in centimetres) above ground level.

  • Camera heading: the compass direction the camera is facing.

  • Camera tilt: the angle of the camera relative to the horizontal plane.

  • Coordinate uncertainty: an estimate of the accuracy of the deployment coordinates, expressed in metres.

  • Bait: indicates the type of bait or attractant that was used at the deployment location, or whether no bait was used.

Annotation

  • Annotate timelapses: this setting controls how timelapse images are dealt with. If enabled, timelapse images are included in the deployments, and thus annotatable. If not enabled, timelapse images will be left out of the deployment.

  • Calibration and tracking: When checked, calibration and tracking options are available during annotation.

  • Sequence cut-off: this setting controls the division of images into sequences. The time difference between subsequent images is used. If the time difference is equal to or smaller than this cut-off, the images are put in the same sequence. If the time difference is greater than this setting, a new sequence is started. The default setting of 120 seconds works well for most projects. Should you wish to change it, please contact agouti@wur.nl. Changing this setting does not affect existing data and is only applied to uploads made after the change.

  • Automatic annotation: here, you can select an AI model to automatically process your deployments. After selecting a model, a button Annotate by AI will show up for each deployment listed on the Deployments page. For more details, please see the dedicated reference automatic annotation page.

  • Automatically with new photo series: when enabled, new deployments are first processed by the AI and can be edited after this is completed.

  • Filter blank images on upload: when enabled, this setting will identify blank images and mark them as such directly after upload.

  • Filter images containing humans on upload: this setting controls how sequences containing humans are handled. New uploads are automatically scanned for humans. Three options are available:

    • Disabled: no action is taken and sequences containing humans remain unchanged.

    • Blurring: images in sequences containing humans are blurred.

    • Obscuring: images in sequences containing humans are hidden and replaced with a placeholder image.

When either blurring or obscuring is enabled, all sequences in the project that contain a human observation, including sequences from previous uploads, will also be blurred or obscured.

Behaviour

Optional: Here, you can define behaviours for your project. Each behaviour has a name and description. These behaviours are available during annotation. You can select none, one or multiple behaviours for each observation.

Individuals

Optional: To keep track of individual animals, add them here. An individual always has a name, species and description. Added individuals are available during annotation.

Deployment tags

Optional: Deployment tags are used to add descriptive labels or metadata to individual deployments. Unlike deployment groups, they do not necessarily represent a formal grouping structure and are mainly intended to store additional information that may be useful for filtering, searching, or describing deployments.

Habitats

Optional: Create custom habitat tags that can be assigned to your locations.

Deployment groups

Optional: Deployment groups are used to organise deployments into meaningful study units that share a common spatial, temporal, or experimental context. A deployment can belong to one or more groups, such as a survey season, sampling session, study area, camera array, or grid cell. These groupings are typically used for analysis and reporting.