See Where the Wild Things Are with GARUD's Wildlife Surveillance
Nx Hackathon Spotlight: 2nd Place
With our recent Nx Hackathon complete, we're thrilled to venture into the wilds of innovation with our top prize winners. This week's spotlight is on our second-place winner, BroBots, who developed a phenomenal solution for wildlife management in national parks and wildlife reserves. By using the capabilities of Network Optix's Enterprise Video Operating System, Nx EVOS, BroBots created GARUD (Geo-spatial Animal Reckon User Dashboard), an application that uses drones, imagery identification, and security camera footage to monitor and track wildlife in real-time. This cutting-edge approach aids rangers, tourists, and researchers with enhanced animal tracking, ensuring safety and providing invaluable data for scientific studies and conservation efforts.
Approach to Wildlife Monitoring
GARUD employs advanced AI algorithms such as YOLO v8 and OpenCV to detect and identify wildlife within video feeds. The system integrates these feeds within the Nx Desktop client, which processes the video for object detection and plots bounding boxes around detected animals. The interactive dashboard displays real-time locations, identifies animal types, and collects data for research, automating many tasks that previously required manual intervention.
Solution Demo
Key Features and Benefits
Wildlife Identification, Detection, and Location Mapping
GARUD utilizes AI to identify and track wildlife, mapping their locations and species in real-time. This feature helps park rangers monitor animal movements, tourists locate the wildlife they wish to see, and researchers gather additional data on animal behavior.
Real-Time Streams of Detected Wildlife
The system provides live video streams of detected animals, offering up-to-date information on their condition and behavior. This real-time access is crucial for rangers and conservationists, enabling them to better track and care for wildlife.
Poaching Alerts
GARUD uses AI to detect potential poachers using event metadata and sends alerts to park rangers, significantly improving response times and bolstering conservation efforts.
Future Enhancements
The GARUD platform is set for further improvements, with multiple enhancements planned for the future, including:
- Water Tracking and Analytics: Monitor water sources to track animal activity and water levels.
- Feeder Control: Implement automated feeder systems controlled via Nx Event metadata to assist in animal feeding.
Conclusion
GARUD represents an evolutionary leap forward in wildlife management, offering a user-friendly system for monitoring and protecting wildlife. By leveraging the advanced capabilities provided by Nx EVOS, BroBots has created a system that can help us further protect our planet and all the creatures living on it. We are beyond proud of BroBots for their innovative solution and send them our sincerest congratulations. Their application truly showcases the transformative power of computer vision in addressing real-world challenges.
Stay tuned for more updates and success stories as we continue to explore the potential of Nx EVOS and celebrate the brilliant minds driving technological advancements.