Sandpiper makes it easier to get bird's-eye view

BRUCE SPENCE
Record Staff Writer
Published Sunday, Sep 18, 2005

MANTECA -- John Christensen is no closer to retirement these days than he was when he walked away from his design engineering work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1989 for health reasons.

In his last year at Livermore, Christensen was asked by a wildlife biologist there to develop a miniature robot that could carry a video camera into burrows.

When he retired, Christensen kept getting other requests from biologists wanting him to create specific equipment to help them monitor wildlife. Word spread with each project, especially when a biologist's publication mentioned Christensen's creation -- sort of the ultimate advertising, he said.

"We started this business sort of by accident," he said. "I was building things in my garage, and pretty soon, I outgrew my garage."

Thus was born Sandpiper Technologies, with Christensen; wife Ann, who manages the office and handles marketing; plus several technicians and several temporary workers.

Christensen and his small team of employees have created such things as a burrow peeper -- a video camera on a miniature robot that can move through an animal or bird burrow -- or a tree-topper, an extension-pole system with a small camera for nest-watching and so on.

When the U.S. Forestry Service ordered 40 of the tree-toppers, he said, "that was sort of the death knell for the garage."

Christensen describes himself as a self-taught computer geek. But he also has a mechanics and engineering background, via training in the U.S. Navy and work in the U.S. Nuclear Submarine Program. At Livermore, he was a senior engineering staffer at the lab's laser isotope separation program.

His specialties are optical, electromechanical and electronic engineering.

"I'm fascinated by science," he said. "I always have been since I was a kid."

Part of the reason he enjoys the Sandpiper work so much, Christensen said, is that he's drawn to the community of wildlife biologists and their work.

Sandpiper Technologies' business continues to go for the latest innovations in a very niche field -- creating, leasing and selling video-recorder systems that biologists use to monitor wildlife from bats to endangered birds to burrowing whatevers.

"All this stuff was built for biologists, but there's lots of interest from law enforcement for surveillance and search and rescue," Christensen said.

Sandpiper Technologies' latest gear combines fuel-cell technology with ever-shrinking audio-recording equipment so that biologists don't have to set up big, noisy generators or backpack several 25-pound batteries in and out of the wilderness. Instead, 5 or 10 liters of methanol are carried into the fuel-cell system.

One user of Sandpiper Technologies digital videocam systems is Tom Bloxton, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forestry Service's Olympia Forestry Sciences Lab in Washington state.

His job is to monitor the marbled murelet, a secretive bird that lives in old-growth forests in the Northwest and is endangered because of logging.

Bloxton has used Sandpiper Technologies camera systems to monitor nests since the '90s and "what we have used is great," he said.

"It's always been just perfect for the needs of a wildlife biologist."

Bloxton is especially interested in the fuel-cell remote power systems that Sandpiper is just introducing. It promises to cut the back-breaking work of lugging three 25-pound motorcycle batteries two hours into the woods via switchbacks and even a river crossing.

"It would make my life easier," he said.

A Sandpiper Technologies switch from a big, heavy VHS tape recorder system to a smaller digital recorder has already been a big improvement for his work, Bloxton said.

"Every time I talk to him Christensen on the phone, he wants to hear more about my projects and incorporate changes into the equipment," Broxton said. "They're very responsive to what works and doesn't work for biologists in the field."

Christensen said fuel-cell prices have plummeted 70 percent in the past three years, making it a more cost-effective technology.

The remote fuel-cell system weighs in at 28 pounds and provides 50-watt, 12-volt power.

The company is offering rentals ranging from $99 to $149, depending on the length of the rental period, plus power used. The system sells for about $3,900 for an interior model and about $6,000 with a case that makes it suitable for outdoor use.

The system can also be used to power cell phones, laptop computers, Global Positioning Systems and video surveillance systems.

Sandpiper equipment is either sold or leased, and often, graduate students use Sandpiper Technologies systems for research.

Contact reporter Bruce Spence at 209 943-8581 or bspence@recordnet.com

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