Echo Meter Touch Bat Detector

Wildlife Acoustics, Inc.

About this app

Using the Echo Meter Touch 2 plug-in modules, available from www.wildlifeacoustics.com, Amazon, or through distributors worldwide, this app allows you to listen to, record, and automatically identify bats by their ultrasonic echolocation calls. The modules and this companion app reveal the silent and often times invisible world of bats, providing outdoor enthusiasts, citizen scientists, and researchers an affordable and informative way to interact with these important creatures.

There are two models available: Echo Meter Touch 2 (EMT2) costs $179 and is intended for nature enthusiasts and batting hobbyists and Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro costs $349 and is designed for bat professionals and features a higher quality microphone, adjustable gain, and higher sample rate.

The Echo Meter Touch Ultrasonic Modules sense ultrasonic signals, digitize the signal, and transmit the ultrasonic data to your the app on your Android device. The EMT2 offers exclusive features and unprecedented ease-of-use for a handheld bat detector.

LISTEN TO BAT’S ECHOLOCATIONS
EMT2 translates bat echolocations into frequencies that are audible to humans using two technologies. Wildlife Acoustics’ patented Real Time Expansion (RTE) allows you to listen to bats in real time with unparalleled fidelity. RTE maintains the timing and tonality of the original echolocations. Heterodyne (HET) listening via manual and automatic tuning is also available, for those accustomed to that way of hearing bats.

VIEW THE ECHOLOCATIONS ON A SPECTROGRAM
A real-time spectrogram shows the frequencies and timing of the echolocations. Scroll back in time and zoom in on previous "bat passes."

SEE MOST LIKELY BAT SPECIES IN REAL-TIME***
The Auto ID feature analyzes the echolocation calls and suggests the two most likely bat species matches in real time. This is the same technology used in our professional Kaleidoscope Pro Bat Auto Identification software. Currently, the app can identify 26 species in North America, 25 in Europe and 57 in the neotropics. For more information on Kaleidoscope and a full list of species, visit our website.

RECORD .WAV FILES
Activate triggered recording mode to automatically save bat passes to full spectrum .wav files for analysis on a computer or to view on your Android device. Or use manual record mode to control start and stop of recording. View the recording spectrogram and add voice or text notes. Listen to the recording using RTE, HET, or traditional Time Expansion Playback (playback at fractional speed to make the ultrasound audible).

SEE YOUR PATH AND RECORDING LOCATIONS
View in satellite or road map view. View identified species codes directly on the map. Go to the recording's spectrogram from the map view. Transfer to your computer to view in Google Earth. Your Android device must have GPS capability or you must use a Bluetooth GPS receiver for this functionality.
*Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.*

TRANSFER RECORDINGS TO YOUR COMPUTER
The EMT2 can transfer the .wav recordings to your computer over a Wi-Fi network or cabled through iTunes. Using Wi-Fi, the app bundles the recordings in a .zip folder and allows download by entering a URL in any web browser.

SHARE RECORDINGS VIA EMAIL OR MMS MESSAGING
And import and open files that have been shared with you.

***Because bats vary their echolocation calls in response to a wide variety of needs, no automated identification can achieve 100% accuracy in species identification. Auto-ID, though largely accurate, should not be relied on as a basis for scientific research. Auto-ID is intended for use in analyzing recordings of single bats in free flight in low clutter environments. Auto-ID will not work well on recordings of roost emergence, multiple or captive bats, bats in high clutter environments, or bat social calls. Auto-ID does not include every possible bat for each of the covered regions.

Ratings and reviews

Great app that I use routinely in my bat work, but it has one major flaw. When Wildlife Acoustics decided to stop making the iOS-compatible version of the microphone, they very unfortunately also decided to remove the ability to send files to a computer via Bluetooth. If you have a MacOS computer, it is very difficult to send files to it.

Appear Incompatible with Samsung S24 Ultra. Worked great with S22 Ultra, but S24 Ultra does not recognize the module. I have tried all the suggestions on the site without success. The list of compatible devices, while referenced a number of times on the site, appears to have been removed. Any suggestions as to how to get the S24 to recognize the module would be greatly appreciated.

Does not work with pixel 6. Recognizes echo meter touch 2, pops up a notification when the module is plugged in warning that the app has not been given permissions (though it has), and then just sits with "waiting" in love mode. I can tap the screen but the ultrasonic microphone does not record anything. I'm happy to help debug this to help others also get it working! 3 stars because it works well with my oneplus 5... Thanks to the developers for your cool work!

What's new

+Further fixes to importing sessions.
+Crash fixes.