Pocket Ecology
Portable ecological tools for handheld and constrained devices.
Pocket Ecology explores ecological analysis outside the traditional desktop environment: small screens, limited memory, battery-powered hardware, and lightweight computational tools designed for portability and field use.
The projects collected here include handheld seasonal ecology models, bat acoustic timing tools, pulse-phase analysis utilities, and small numerical systems adapted for constrained hardware such as the TI-84 Plus CE-T Python calculator.
These tools are intentionally modest in scope compared to the larger desktop systems developed elsewhere within Field Notes Journal. Their purpose is not to replace full analytical workflows, but to explore what remains possible when ecological computation is reduced to compact, portable forms.
Across the projects, the emphasis remains on:
- Interpretability
- Portability
- Constrained numerical computation
- Practical ecological reasoning
The section sits somewhere between:
- Field instrumentation
- Educational computing
- Embedded scientific programming
- Acoustic field analysis
- Portable natural history tooling
Some projects began as experiments motivated largely by curiosity. Others emerged from practical questions about whether ecological timing analysis, seasonal modelling, and behavioural interpretation could survive substantial hardware constraints while remaining scientifically meaningful.
Surprisingly often, the answer has been yes.
Contents
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Resident Detectability Model | How a resident species varies in visibility through the year |
| Seasonal Presence Model | When a species appears within the year |
| Winter Visitor Model | When a species appears across the year boundary |
| Bat Call Timing Analysis | Portable analysis of bat pulse timing structure using PRI, IPI, and sequence timing metrics |
| Bat Behavioural Phase Analysis | Portable analysis of bat echolocation behaviour through pulse timing and behavioural phase inference |
Repository
TI-84 Python
Small scientific and modelling experiments for the TI-84 Plus CE-T Python
As a slightly improbable side project, a growing collection of numerical, modelling, and scientific computing experiments have gradually been implemented on the TI-84 Plus CE-T Python calculator.
The repository explores what can realistically be achieved within the calculator's highly constrained Python environment, including ODE solving, ecological modelling, graphical rendering, and various optimisation techniques required to make small scientific applications run on limited handheld hardware.