Simian code: Soon, a facial recognition software for monkeys

THE PROGRAMME WILL HELP FOREST OFFICIALS CHECK IF A SIMIAN HAS ALREADY BEEN STERILISED

DEHRADUN: The Wildlife Institute of India has tied up with a private institute to developing artificial intelligence (Ai)-based software that will carry out facial recognition of monkeys to create a database of the sterilised simians.

According to the wildlife institute officials, the Delhi based Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), is working on the software that will help recognise monkeys with the help of digital images, a first of its kind programme.

The software, officials said, will identify monkeys on various parameters --- spatial structure, corner of eyes, mouth, nose and any particular facial characteristic -- similar to such programs that exist for human facial recognition.

Saket Anand, an assistant professor of IIIT Delhi working on AI technology, said: “The software will help identify monkeys and their groups in a non-invasive manner. The application would be handy and will be able to tell whether the monkey photographed was sterilised earlier or not. This way, we aim at achieving faster results in controlling monkey population.”

“Catching and sterilising monkeys is a tiring and time taking process. We needed a technology that could help save our time. The software, if tested successfully, would then be used in other states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh which are also reeling under monkey menace,” Qamar Qureshi, a senior scientist working on the project at WII said.

There have been several instances of same monkey been caught more than once for sterlisation in high density states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The WII plans to test the software in its campus and some other places such as Forest Research Institute campus and Rajaji Tiger Reserve.