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Wanted criminals have already been tracked using biometric imaging, but now an Irish company is targeting dairy cows with a new form of facial recognition.
Irish company Cainthus appears to be ‘raising the steaks’ in facial recognition with an unusual plan to roll out the technology to dairy farms around the world.
The data solutions company based in Dublin has partnered with agriculture giant Cargill to produce a predictive imaging system that can identify cows from their facial features and hide patterns. The software will also provide dairy farmers with data on their animal’s temperature and food intake.
I'm definitely bullish on this idea.
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/417752-cow-facial-recognition-cargill/
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday February 05 2018, @05:56PM (7 children)
Wouldn't it be simpler to use a horse and buggy rather than an immensely complex machine, loaded with technology, to get you places?
The thing is, once it is reliable and affordable, you take it for granted and accept it as "simple". Now people see Chromebooks as "simple". Take one back to 1980 and it would be amazing beyond belief. People would say wouldn't it be simpler to use pencil and paper?
As in my post below, when we get affordable reliable AI security cameras, and other AI computer vision applications (eg, is the toast done properly), we'll take them as simple. The technology eventually, yes really, will be almost disposable, like pocket calculators are today. Let alone the amazing transistor radios that preceded pocket calculators. There was a time when today's disposable ball point pen was an expensive luxury item. (See here [wikipedia.org] where ballpoint pen in 1945 was worth $170 in today's dollars.)
For some odd reason all scientific instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed away from Earth.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 05 2018, @05:57PM (3 children)
Just to add: you could buy a Chromebook today for what that 1945 ball point pen cost (in today's dollars).
For some odd reason all scientific instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed away from Earth.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 05 2018, @06:20PM (2 children)
The 1945 ball point pen could conceivably have had equal or greater ROI in 1945 compared to a Chromebook today. Sign checks, documents, contracts, draft letters or even a book - the Chromebook has tremendous potential, but what are most of them really used for? How much do they actually benefit their owners?
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by tftp on Monday February 05 2018, @06:55PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 05 2018, @08:20PM
Exactly, most ballpoint pens today never do anything of value, but in 1945 the usefulness ratio of ballpoint pens was much higher.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday February 05 2018, @06:24PM
You're comparing apples and oranges. A Chromebook can do things you can't even imagine doing with pen and paper.
According to TFS, this machine vision system's purpose is simply to identify individual cows, so you can track them individually. You don't need bovine facial recognition to do that, you just need eartags, like they've been using for ages. What does the vision system do that you can't do with eartags?
As for horse and buggy vs. cars, let's compare cars and walking. Which is better? Well, if I just need to go across the street and back, the more complicated solution (car) is pretty stupid: you're expending far more resources, and dealing with far more complexity (including maintenance), just to do something that you can do just as quickly, or perhaps more quickly, without any technology at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @07:24PM (1 child)
Considering that RFID can find a cow anywhere they may be rather than requiring the cow to be facing a camera, RFID would be more effective and cheaper.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 05 2018, @08:06PM
If I read correctly, the vision system can recognize the other end of the cow as well. That is, the hide patterns.
For some odd reason all scientific instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed away from Earth.