Countdown, manatees on the radar of artificial intelligence

STEAM people! Okay, first things first! Did you know that manatees are like the wolverines of the sea? Yes, yes! They spend most of the day sucking, I mean, grazing for food, but that makes them super vulnerable to changes in the weather and other dangers. Imagine trying to count manatees – almost impossible! They live in gangs, and when you see them from above, it looks like an aquatic game of hide-and-seek, the little guys can be completely camouflaged. And that’s not all! The reflections of the water and the teasing rocks make counting them like looking for needles in a haystack.

So how do you count these big guys without losing your sanity? This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in, the brilliant brains at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science pulled out their innovation hats and applied an ingenious artificial intelligence method to count manatees. Hold on, they used security camera footage for this! Yes, those CCTV cameras you see everywhere; scientists came up with a crazy design called “anisotropic Gaussian kernel” (AGK) that transforms photos into detailed maps of manatees, like detectives, but in tech mode.

They found that their AI method outperformed the old tricks, they went from labeling dots to drawing lines, and BOOM, better accuracy. Imagine this as a game of “Find the Manatee” in expert mode. And what is the final result? A fast, effective and almost effortless method for counting manatees! Now state parks can use their security cameras to monitor these big guys in real time. Like Big Brother, but friendlier and without drama!

Last but not least, let’s remember that manatees are the rockstars of the oceans. Some are in danger of extinction! Counting them helps to understand how they live and ensures their survival. Thanks to AI, we can now take care of our marine friends in a cooler way, so, in short, artificial intelligence and manatees make the perfect combo to save marine lives. Who said technology has no heart? Until the next STEAM adventure, where science and fun meet in the ocean of information!