Working with NOAA and the University of Colorado, Boulder Labs developed image recognition software to identify seals in large volumes of aerial imagery taken via UAV in the Arctic. Featured on Discovery Channel News, the software helps monitor the health of Arctic seal populations.
One of the really interesting parts of this project is how we were able to identify seals in all of those images. We've tried in the past and we've failed, but then I heard about this company that does facial recognition software. If they're able to tell faces out of the crowd and identify who is who, I thought they might be able to use that expertise with our problem up in the Arctic. They've been successful in identifying seals in some of the most complicated, snowy areas up in the Arctic. The Boulder Labs folks really surprised us. Without their expertise we wouldn't have had such success, and i must say we've had other groups try to analyze images looking for seals in the past and they've failed, so this is a big breakthrough for us. -- Elizabeth Weatherhead, University of Colorado
