Former student at Linnaeus University designs mobile app for bee farmers – a more efficient way to monitor life in the beehive
The logging of life in beehives can now go from paper and pen to a digital solution, thanks to a degree project in media technology at Linnaeus University. In collaboration with TietoEVRY and BeeLab, Oscar Bergström, alumnus from the programme Interactive Media and Web Technologies, has designed the interface for a new mobile app intended to make work for bee farmers more efficient.
He got the idea for the degree project when one of the professors on the programme mentioned that TietoEVRY was looking for a student who wanted to create a prototype for their future mobile app to help bee farmers log the life in their beehives.
“I was about to take a course in bee farming in my leisure time when I heard about the project on the mobile app that was to show data from their digital beehive. I immediately thought it sounded interesting and that it would suit me, as I love designing interfaces, finding out what users need, and creating user-friendly mobile apps. It was a large plus that I would also get to work with bees, as they are extremely important insects”, Bergström explains.
The degree project generated a prototype that Bergström has later been able to develop for real.
“The prototype was developed through an iterative process where I tested different functionality. The idea is that the app should be better than regular paper and pen, which many bee farmers use today when they conduct so-called logging of their beehives. Bee farmers log their beehives 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.
When working with the prototype and the tests, Bergström realised that you can spread knowledge between bee farmers a lot easier and quicker by using the app, and the bee farmer saves time as an app can make summaries automatically, which means you do need not to spend time on manual work afterwards.
Now that the degree project has been completed, the process moves on with continued development.
“BeeLab will continue to develop the app and when it enters the market bee farmers will be able to download it and hopefully gain new knowledge. We are also working to develop new sensors, for instance, a sound sensor in the digital beehives, which will contribute with even more new knowledge about life in the beehives”, Bergström concludes.
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