Keeping up with hive life - Linnaeus University alumnus develops mobile app for beekeepers

09/16/2021 | by Linnaeus University | Environment Linnaeus

Recording life in beehives can now move from paper and pen to a digital solution, thanks to a final year project in Media Technology at Linnaeus University. In collaboration with TietoEVRY and BeeLab, Oscar Bergström, a graduate in Interactive Media and Web Technologies, designed the interface for a new mobile app that aims to make beekeepers' work more efficient.

The photo shows a young man, Oscar Bergström, in Beekeeper attire on a green meadow. In the background are numerous bee boxes, with a row of trees behind them.
Bergström found that sharing knowledge between beekeepers is much easier and faster with the help of the app. Image source: Linnaeus University

The idea for the final project came to him when one of the professors in the course mentioned that TietoEVRY was looking for a student to design a prototype for a future mobile app that would help beekeepers record life in their hives.

“I was taking a class on beekeeping in my spare time when I heard about the project about the mobile app that would display data from their digital hive. I immediately thought it sounded interesting and that it would suit me, as I love designing interfaces, figuring out what users need, and creating user-friendly mobile apps. It was a big plus that I would also get to work with bees, as they are extremely important insects,” Bergström explains.

The thesis resulted in a prototype that Bergström was later able to develop into a working application.

“The prototype was developed through an iterative process where I tested different functionalities. The idea is that the app should be better than regular paper and pen, which many bee farmers use today for what is called logging their hives. Beekeepers log their hives in order to find out how their bees are doing and to keep track of what has been done and what needs to be done,” Bergström continues.

While working with the prototype and testing, Bergström found that sharing knowledge between beekeepers is much easier and faster with the help of the app, and that the beekeeper saves time because the app can automatically create summaries, which means that no more time has to be spent on manual work.

Now that the degree project has been completed, further development continues.

“BeeLab will continue to develop the app and when it goes on the market, beekeepers will be able to download it and hopefully gain new insights. We are also working on developing new sensors, for example a sound sensor in the digital beehives, which will contribute even more new knowledge about life in the hives,” Bergström concludes.

 

Find the study in DiVA

Detection of Deviations in Beehives Based on Sound Analysis and Machine Learning

Digital loggbok till uppkopplade bin: En studie om att använda digitala verktyg inom biodling

 

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