I-Corps: Software that allows beekeepers to identify potential bee health issues

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是改善蜜蜂的健康。由于蜜蜂授粉，每年增加的农作物价值超过150亿美元。这项拟议的技术使用人工智能来监听蜜蜂的声音，并将它们在蜂箱内的声音与健康和不健康蜜蜂的广泛数据库进行比较。这项技术有可能显著减少商业养蜂人花在检查蜜蜂上的时间，从而改善蜜蜂的健康。这项技术还有可能让更多的人成为后院的养蜂人，因为他们现在有了一种技术工具来帮助他们评估蜜蜂的健康状况。这个i-Corps项目旨在评估在蜂箱入口处监听蜜蜂30秒的技术的商业潜力，然后将声音与机载的有特定健康问题的蜜蜂的参考声音记录数据库进行比较。通过使用人工神经网络软件，这项技术可以快速评估蜜蜂发出的声音是否与蜜蜂发出的声音相匹配，这是养蜂人关注的七个蜜蜂健康问题之一。这些健康问题是无皇后、瓦罗螨、非洲化、小蜂甲、肮脏的幼虫、尾状微孢子虫和衰败的群体(有时被称为群体崩溃障碍)。已经进行了广泛的全球研究，以倾听蜂群中的蜜蜂，并将这些声音与非常具体的蜜蜂健康问题进行匹配。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to improve the health of bees. Pollination due to bees is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year. The proposed technology uses artificial intelligence to listen to bees and compare their in-hive sounds to an extensive database of healthy and unhealthy bees. This technology has the potential to significantly reduce the time commercial beekeepers spend inspecting their bees, and as a result to improve the health of the bees. The technology also has the potential to allow more people to become backyard beekeepers as they now have a technology tool to help them asses their bees' health.This I-Corps project seeks to evaluate the commercial potential of technology that listens to bees at the hive entrance for 30 seconds, and then compares that sound to an onboard proprietary database of recorded reference sounds of bees having specific health issues. Using artificial neural network software, the technology rapidly assesses whether the sounds match those made by bees with one of seven bee health issues significant to beekeepers. These health issues are Queenless, Varroa mite, Africanized, Small Hive Beetle, Foul Brood, Nosema Ceranae and Failing Colony (sometimes referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder). Extensive global research has been conducted on listening to bees in the hive and matching those sounds to very specific bee health issues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.