BirdMIKE Technical Specification:

BirdMIKE is a small computer in itself. It plays back birdsounds instantly whenever it touches "soundspots" that are printed on the various publications in the BirdMIKE range of products.

Currently the publications include the following media - British Birds Diary, plastic encapsulated water-proof Field Guide, re-peelable Picture Stickers of birds and the sounds, Quiz Cards, Fridge Magnets of bird sounds, Sticky Labels. A new addition is the British Birds Guide, which is a 6 ring binder of 270 species with illustrations, seasonal maps, all sound enabled.

BirdMIKE is capable of storing about 120 hours of human conversation or bird sounds with its 2 GB memory. For example, the 270 British Birds Calls, Songs and Geoff Sample's advice take up only 180MB. That means there is about 1800 MB free for your own recordings.

BirdMIKE runs on 2 AAA batteries which are available nearly anywhere in the world. You can use AAA re-chargeable batteries. We chose these instead of built-in rechargeable batteries so that you do not always have to remember to take a charger! (The duration of the batteries varies according to use, mainly on the volume set for the sound. At Birdfair, a pen would run the whole 8 hours continuously on with volume set at loud!)

The built-in speakers give a loud sound which many of you could hear at Birdfair across 35m! (We had to turn the volume down!) There is also a 3.5mm port for earphones or power speakers.

The built-in USB is version 2.1, the latest, that ensures that you can back up your sound files quickly and easily to a computer if you so wish. The USB cable will link to the internet via a computer in order to download more content, like bird sounds from other countries or regions, audio enabled books and educational charts and many more publications that BirdMIKE can read.

The uni-directional microphone fits into the 3.5mm port - which is closest to the speaker end of BirdMIKE. The microphone's specification is as follows: frequency response: 20HZ to 16KHZ. This range is way beyond what the human ear can hear and covers all bird calls and songs. The sensitivity is -55dB. (The higher the negative number the more sensitive the microphone is.) BirdMIKE will pick up sound of birds about 30m (or on treetops) away.

If you wish to get greater sensitivity, you can attach a parabolic microphone and these range from about £100 (US$170) to £400.

The lanyard port will lock mobile phone type connectors.

BirdMIKE is part of the TalkingPEN family of products and associated websites are www.mantralingua.com (children's educational resources), www.rnib.co.uk. Your BirdMIKE can access all the Talking Books, Posters and Sticky Label publications that are available at these sites

Birdfair is Europe's largest annual Birding exhibition.