Joey Stein works to make people feel connected to both the natural world and the scientific world. His current project is the Firefly Communicator, a device that uses light patterns to talk to fireflies. The project is running a Kickstarter campaign to gain funding for a production run of pieces.
Stein says that there are over 2000 species of fireflies, and each have their own specific light pattern. Male and female flies also emit different light patterns. Through an interactive app users can download patterns to call new species of fireflies as they're encountered. The idea is that citizen scientists can also find new patterns and upload them to the app, helping to build the worldwide database of signals.
Nature Deficit Disorder is an idea that society has a lessening relationship to the natural environment. The Firefly Communicator is the team's attempt at rebuilding a connection between people and nature, along with working to keep the firefly population from extinction.
After working for the American Museum of Natural History, Stein started moey inc as a way to build interactive projects and displays. Engineers worked with artists, designers, builders and educators to create digital / physical experiences. My favorite projects from the website are a light garden made up of 3D printed flowers that create light and music when people approach them, and a giant scoreboard built for the World Cup that used shipping containers and vehicle headlights to show numbers.
The Firefly Communicator is a great attempt at bringing together the worlds of engineering, coding, product design, and nature. The project seems simple at first but the design and programming of the app looks like a very complex algorithm. I'm always interested in the ways that projects get their users to build a knowledge base and this looks promising as a method of expanding our knowledge of fireflies. The campaign runs until May 14 and if funded the units are expected to ship in June, 2016.