The Lindbergh Foundation has launched a project to combat poachers using drones and artificial intelligence.
In southern Africa rhinos and elephants run the risk of extinction in ten years. This is estimated by the Lindbergh Foundation, which has a program to combat poachers on the African continent. In fact, the foundation points out that to prevent the extinction of these two animals in the region it is necessary to stop the pace of this illegal practice, which seeks to profit from the smuggling of ivory from the horns and tusks of these pachyderms.
The Air Shepherd program aims to prevent the action of poachers in Africa. It is the Lindbergh Foundation’s instrument to alleviate this problem. And the basis of this instrument is technological. It is about a combination of drones with artificial intelligence.
The program has the collaboration of Neurala, a company specialized in machine learning. Their products analyze data from cars, cameras or drones to extract intelligence from them. Thus, Neurala is able to perform complex tasks, as image and object recognition with precision.
In this case it is the drones that enter the data into the system. Hence, the programme refers to alleged aerial grazing. The idea is for these drones to fly over fields and populations of elephants and rhinos. Device transmit images in real time to a central system. In it artificial intelligence will help analysts determine when there is risk to animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPtlYwIt-cw
Neurala software allows you to recognize when there are elephants, rhinos or poachers, as well as their vehicles. At night you might think things get complicated. It’s not like that. Drone are capable of recording images with infrared cameras and the software also has precision to discover the details in the video.
At the moment the foundation has introduced into the Neurala system 5,000 hours of drone recording over 4,000 missions. It’s a start, especially to train the algorithm, but the work remains to be done.
The initiative has been announced on the occasion of the commemoration of the famous trip of Charles Lindbergh, the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane 90 years ago. He gives name to the foundation, which plans major projects for this year, on the occasion of the anniversary.
Image: thiery49
