Before you begin installing and using the ZIP Classifier application, there are a few things to consider. ZIP Classifier has been designed for ZIP work, but can be personalised to accommodate the specific requirements of your site and project.

1.1 Folder Location

Each person using ZIP Classifier will have their own Working Folder, Export Folder and metadata spreadsheet on their computer. During the installation process, you will be asked to specify the location of these folders. The metadata spreadsheet is automatically generated, and stored within the Export Folder.

1.2 Backing up images

At the beginning of the classifying process, the images are imported from the source location (usually an SD card) to the Working Folder.

Once the images are classified and exported, a copy of the images is placed within separate species folders within the Export Folder. For example, you may have a Kea Folder which contains all the classified kea images. An Excel metadata spreadsheet is also created in the Export Folder which holds data from the classified images.

You need to consider whether another location is required as a backup repository for your images, such as in internal server, cloud, or hard drives.

1.3 Metadata spreadsheet

The process of classifying the images and exporting them automatically creates a metadata spreadsheet for each person who is classifying images, which is saved in their Export Folder. This contains a summary of the data, such as time, date, camera name, species name, and other data you have entered when each image was classified. We suggest that you regularly merge the metadata spreadsheets of the team members who are classifying images. As images continue to be classified, each metadata spreadsheet is automatically updated. If a metadata spreadsheet is moved to another location (for example, merged with another team member’s metadata spreadsheet) a new metadata spreadsheet will automatically be created in the Export Folder the next time images are classified.

The metadata spreadsheet can be filtered and/or made into pivot tables to show specific data points. It can be analysed to look at detection trends over a given time period, for example animal activity at the camera site, animal behaviour while at the camera site, and presence of non-target species.

1.4 Species List

The ZIP Classifier app comes with a default species list and suggested keystrokes. Personalising the species list for your site will save your team a lot of time.

Consider which species you want to record when sighted. There will be some non-target species that may not need to be classified to species level. Should you have a catchall category for these? Have a look at your images and identify the common categories. 

Each person using ZIP Classifier is able to personalise the software. Therefore, you’ll need to ensure that all species are named consistently across your team, including the use of capital letters. Otherwise, you will end up with slightly different folder names and metadata information. 

Once you have started using ZIP Classifier, any changes made to the species names will create folders with the original and revised names. If you do change the species names once you have begun to use ZIP Classifier, you will need to rename and merge files in order to keep the data complete and consistent. To avoid this, we recommend you spend time before you get started to personalise the species list and ensure all team members are working from the same list.

1.5 Keystrokes

When classifying trail camera images, a keystroke is used to identify the image. Once you have identified the high frequency images, you’ll need to decide on the keystroke that will identify it. We recommend just one letter for the most common species. These can be personalised by each of the team for their own PC.

A species can be represented by either a single key or multiple keys. Please note that you cannot use a single key for a species if that letter has also been used in combination with other keys for another species. For example, you cannot use F (or FE) for ferret if you already have F for fantail. You would need to change the keystroke for Fantail from F to FT (for example) and then add ferret as FE. 

1.6 Optimising the display

If you are using a computer with a small screen, such as a laptop, you may need to adjust the display resolution through the Display settings on your computer, to ensure ZIP Classifier displays correctly. On small screens, we recommend selecting a display resolution of 1920 x 1440 or 1920 x 1220. You may find that you need to save the changes, then close and re-open ZIP Classifier, in order for the changes to take effect.

• We recommend classifying the images in short stints of approx. 20mins, with short breaks in between. 

• Consider what the naming format should be for cameras in your detection network. Each camera needs to have a unique ID. We suggest minimal characters for ease of entry.

• Consider how often the team will service your cameras and collect the SD cards.

• The SD card image will be labelled by the camera with the data that you have set. We recommend including date, time, and camera name, as a minimum.

• Consider who is going to review the footage. Will it be the same person/people each time?

• Be mindful that across teams there will be different abilities to identify species. Have you created a species list that all of the team can identify?