Developing conservation technology to facilitate wildlife monitoring

随着世界生物多样性受到威胁，科学家们开始寻找研究自然的替代方法，试图保护物种和生态系统。在技术发展的推动下，我们可以开始探索如何使用无人机和相机陷阱等设备来扩展我们目前对自然世界的理解。开发新的计算机方法来支持和加速对收集到的数据进行分析对这项工作至关重要。该项目旨在通过开发用于野生动物监测的面部识别软件来推进保护技术领域。利用人脸识别技术，我们将开发一种软件工具，可以从面部图像中识别出单个棕熊（Ursus arctos）。将这项技术应用于相机陷阱照片将为科学家提供一种新的技术来监测棕熊的野生种群，并提出更广泛的应用研究问题。这一点很重要，因为科学家们面临越来越大的压力，要从他们的研究中得出更大的结论，但可用的资源越来越少。此外，我们将在实地测试该软件，并制定使用准则。这项研究为开发其他受威胁野生动物的面部识别技术提供了基础，这可能有助于全球的保护工作。我们将与熊旅游业合作，他们将应用该项目的结果为商业决策提供信息。对商业上看待的熊的当地相关知识是极其重要的，因为它使公司能够确定可能对商业成功产生负面影响的任何令人担忧的原因。我们计划开发一个免费使用的网站，让全世界都能访问我们的识别系统。在这里，科学家和公众可以上传棕熊的照片，不仅可以识别他们看到的熊，还可以将他们的图像捐赠给数据库，以促进大规模的监测计划。这将有助于更准确地估计该物种在加拿大的种群规模。该项目提供了机会，通过公民科学家的参与，使加拿大人参与野生动物保护，因此也是一种公共教育工具。

With the world's biodiversity under threat, scientists are beginning to look for alternative ways to study nature in an attempt to protect species and ecosystems. Facilitated by developments in technology, we can begin to explore how equipment such as drones and camera traps can be used to expand our current understanding of the natural world. Developing new computer methods to support and accelerate the analyses of data collected will be essential to this undertaking. This project aims to progress the field of conservation technology by developing face recognition software for use in wildlife monitoring. Using human face recognition techniques, we will develop a software tool that can identify individual brown bears (Ursus arctos) from images of their faces. Applying this technology to camera trap photographs would provide scientists with a new technique to monitor wild populations of brown bears and ask a wider variety of applied research questions. This is important as scientists are under increasing pressure to draw larger conclusions from their research, but with fewer resources available. In addition, we will test the software in the field and develop guidelines for its use. This study provides the foundation for development of face recognition for other threatened wildlife, which could aid conservation efforts worldwide. We will work alongside the bear tourism industry, who will apply the results of this project to inform business decisions. Locally relevant knowledge of the bears that are viewed commercially is extremely important as it allows companies to identify any causes for concern which could have a negative effect on business success. We plan to develop a free-to-use website that will provide worldwide access to our recognition system. Here, scientists and members of the public can upload photos of brown bears and not only identify the bear that they have seen, but also donate their images to a database to facilitate large-scale monitoring programs. This will help to develop more accurate estimates of population sizes for the species in Canada. This project provides the opportunity to engage Canadians in wildlife conservation through involvement as citizen scientists and therefore serves as a tool for public education.**