China now has some 700
million pigs, half of the world population, most on huge farms. To manage such
huge numbers China is turning to new technology including artificial intelligence
(AI)
The Chinese tech giant
Alibaba has signed a deal with the pig feed manufacturer Tequ Group and Chinese farming
corporation Dekon Group worth tens of millions of dollarsAlibaba Group Holdiings Limited is a huge Chinese multinational
e-commerce, retail, Internet, AI and technology conglomerate. As of January
2018, the market cap of Alibaba was $527 billion US. It is one of the 10 most
valuable companies in the world.
The aim of the project is
to develop a pig-tracking system powered by AI. At present RFID wireless radio
frequency tags are used but they are expensive and time-consuming to manage.
Each RFID has to be fitted to each pig and scanned individually to track them.
Tequ Group's chief
information officer Zhang
Haifeng said:
“If you have 10 million pigs to raise, you can barely count how many piglets
were born on a daily basis when the due date comes.” The existing system causes
real bottlenecks.
The
AI solution
Machine vision technology
is used to identify numbers tattooed onto the pigs' bodies using overhead
cameras. The system will be able to count pigs and piglets but it is hoped to
also provide more sophisticated analysis.
The system will be able to
combine temperature readings from infrared cameras with data on how much each
pig moves every day. This will enable the system to estimate the health of each
animal.
There will be voice
recognition as well which can monitor such sounds as pigs coughing.Zhang Sheng of Alibaba said:“On one
hand, we hope to bring down husbandry costs and achieve agricultural reform. On
the other hand, we’d like to translate AI technology into safe, tasty pork.”
As the Chinese population
demands more and more pork, pig farming will need to become more automated and
efficient. AI could be a crucial part of this process. The appended video shows
a Chinese pig farm.
Sources
https://goo.gl/XgFvDy
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