Motion Sensor Tracking System (C/N)

Disambiguation Links – Motion Sensor Tracking System (S/F)

The primary method by which the dinosaur population was accounted for in Jurassic Park was through a large-scale system of motion sensors  placed at evenly spaced sections over the majority of the island. The sensors are described as simple green boxes atop four foot (1.2 meter) tall poles, which are individually numbered depending on the paddock and position where the sensor was located (T/N/05 would represent Tyrannosaur paddock North, number 5).  It was claimed that the sensors could identify an individual animal within five feet of its actual location. Examples of some motion sensors are:

T/N/01
T/N/02
T/N/03
T/N/04
T/N/05
T/N/06
——–
T/S/01
T/S/02
T/S/03
T/S/04

The sensors displayed the location of animals which had been accounted for as yellow dots on a scale map of Isla Nublar, and the animals’ locations were updated every thirty seconds. Furthermore, automated population counts were performed every fifteen minutes.

However, there was a major flaw in the motion sensor tracking system: it was only set to alert park staff when the number of animals was less than the number of animals expected, and not when the population was higher. Since InGen believed that their animals were incapable of breeding, to save time they established a set number for the computer to search for and nothing more, which allowed additional animals such as the Velociraptors and Procompsognathus to roam about the island almost unaccounted for. Additionally, while most of the island was monitored by the sensors, a small portion, mostly in the area of the river, was not because other environmental factors threw off the motion sensors.