A cool use of
machine intelligence, to track tiger populations:
Using a formula developed by renowned tiger expert Ullas Karanth of WCS, researchers accurately estimate local populations by how many times individual tigers are "recaptured" by the camera trap technique. It is expected that the new software will allow researchers to rapidly identify animals, which in turn could speed up tiger conservation efforts.
The "formula" is simply a way to do pattern recognition based on the stripe patterns -- apparently, tiger stripes, like human fingerprints, are unique. Because the stripes are unique, a nice side-effect is that the software can be used to identify cases where tiger pelts have been
poached. By
cross-labeling the poached pelt with camera images, it may be possible to find out where the tiger was last seen alive, so narrowing down the potential suspects.
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