To support environmental conservation efforts, an EPFL start-up has developed a smart microphone system that can record and analyze the sounds made by animals.
Any nature lover will tell you: the best way to identify the species present in a natural habitat is to listen attentively to their symphony of roars, growls, squeals and squawks. Synature, an EPFL startup, has created a smart microphone system that can record these sounds automatically over a vast area and analyze them using artificial intelligence. Its technology gives organisations, nature stewards and consultants a powerful new tool for assessing the impact of changes to natural habitats - such as the creation of a natural reserve or the construction of new buildings - expanding their research on the environment and animal behavior, and helping public officials and economic policymakers make informed decisions. "Our devices also provide an acoustically engaging way to get people interested in nature," says Synature CEO Olivier Staehli. The system has been tested in Glaris canton, France and South Africa , and will soon be ready for larger-scale manufacturing.
Three-month battery life thanks to a reduced power requirement
Using animal sounds to monitor wildlife populations is nothing new, but it's done manually: researchers use microphones to collect recordings on site, and then analyze the data later. "Our smart microphones filter out the background noise from the animal sounds," says Staehli. "Then algorithms recognize the sounds made by specific species. This information is displayed in an app in an easy-to-read format."
of the Enabled by Design program at EPFL and ECAL.© 2025 Synature
Staehli and his colleague Noah Schmid (CTO) first tested their system on wolf populations. They carried out a series of tests in Glaris Canton in 2022, which showed their device can be useful for knowing where these animals are and how many there are. The technology isn't yet capable of detecting and recognizing the acoustic signatures of individual specimens, but it can distinguish the calls made by offspring from those made by adults.
"Our goal isn't to replace existing monitoring systems, but rather to supplement them with another approach," says Staehli. "Each method has its own limitations, so by combining different ones, scientists can get a much more representative view of biodiversity."
Unlike other wildlife monitoring methods such as remote sensing and eDNA - DNA present in the environment, derived from living organisms via their cells, excretions, hairs, scales or organic debris-, Synature's system records continually. This continuous data stream is very helpful to detect trends in an ecosystem more precisely than just taking measurements once per year, for example. As a result, the challenge for its developers was to find a way to cut the amount of power used by the microphone so as to maximize its battery life. This is crucial to reduce the required field work to a minimum. To detect animals they use a novel transformer-based architecture that enables more accurate detection with less data than more traditional methods. Synature is expanding its system to detect amphibians, alongside thousands of bird species.
We took part in EPFL's Blaze startup accelerator program for students, which gave us useful advice from a number of coaches, and in the Enabled by Design program, where we worked with a designer to improve the aesthetics of our device and app
Synature is conducting a range of pilot projects for example on the pilot farm Hectar southeast of Paris, where researchers are experimenting with novel and regenerative farming methods. Synature carries out tests of its smart microphone on over 300 hectares of land, monitoring the species living on the land and collecting data on the effect of changes made under other projects being carried out at Hectar.
EPFL has been crucial to the company's existence
"Without EPFL, we wouldn't have been able to get our business off the ground," says Staehli. He came to EPFL in 2021 to study Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship (MTE), and as part of his master's degree he and Schmid developed a business plan and started setting up a company. Their mentors encouraged them, as they saw potential in the smart microphone idea - especially given the growing awareness of the need to protect biodiversity. Staehli and Schmid took their business further after obtaining their master's degree. "We took part in EPFL's Blaze startup accelerator program for students, which gave us useful advice from a number of coaches, and in the Enabled by Design program, where we worked with a designer to improve the aesthetics of our device and app." Synature also received funding from Switzerland's Venture Kick and Bridge startup support programs.
"According to figures from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, nearly half of the 230 types of natural habitats in the country are under threat, and 35% of the species analyzed are considered threatened," says Staehli, who spends much of his free time enjoying the outdoors. "What's more, the amount of land used for residential buildings and infrastructure has nearly doubled in the past 50 years, putting additional pressure on the country's ecosystems."
As more and more regulations are being passed to protect natural ecosystems and biodiversity, city officials and businesses need to have reliable data on the state of nature. Synature has received several requests over the past few months from organizations eager to try out its smart microphone. The company is carrying a funding round in order to hire additional employees and ramp up production.
