RESOLVE’s TrailGuard AI anti-poaching system was featured on “The Age of AI”, a new YouTube TV series hosted by Robert Downey Jr.
TrailGuard AI featured in ‘The Age of AI’New TV series shows TrailGuard AI anti-poaching solution in actionRESOLVE’s TrailGuard AI anti-poaching system was featured on “The Age of AI”, a new YouTube TV series hosted by Robert Downey Jr. The 8-episode series features the most innovative technologies using Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), and their game-changing potential in various industries, including healthcare, space exploration, and manufacturing. TrailGuard AI was featured in Episode 7, “Saving the world, one algorithm at a time”, which focuses on applying AI and technology for environmental protection.The episode transports you to the Maasai Mara region of Kenya to see how TrailGuard AI can be used to detect poachers and alert park managers in near-real time. Designed to be a tiny, cryptic camera system, TrailGuard AI is hidden on suspected poaching trails and captures images whenever it detects motion. The camera runs an AI model to look for humans within images, and if a human is detected, sends the image to park managers so they can mobilize ranger teams to intercept poachers before they kill wildlife.Eric Dinerstein, Director of the Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions (BWS) program is featured prominently, along with other members of the team: Steve Gulick, Sanjiv Fernando, and Jonathan Konuche. Our partners, Intel and the Mara Elephant Project, are also well represented.Connectivity for Conservation: Behind the Scenes of Near-Real Time AlertingTransmitting intruder alerts in near-real time is critical to TrailGuard AI’s mission to stop poachers before they can kill wildlife. The video above does not cover how TrailGuard AI image alerts get transmitted to park HQ. If a human is detected within an image, the TrailGuard AI software compresses the image to 15 kilobytes so that it can be sent over cellular, long-range radio, or satellite networks. As most wildlife reserves are located in remote areas lacking cell connectivity, TrailGuard AI’s ability to leverage long-range radio and networks is critical to enable near-real time alerting. Images are transmitted over a LoRa network to Gateway, which uses a satellite modem to send the alert onto the internet and down to park managers. Multiple TrailGuard AI cameras in the field can connect to a single gateway, meaning only a small number of sat modems are required per park. Through partnerships with Inmarsat and Galaxy1, RESOLVE has secured discounted pricing on state-of-the-art satellite modems and data transmission fees, making this solution affordable even for protected areas with limited budgets.RESOLVE’s BWS team is hard at work building TrailGuard AI units for the field, and we look forward to deploying the technology across a number of parks in Africa in 2020 to help protect endangered wildlife.Sanjiv Fernando RESOLVE February 6, 2010
At RESOLVE, we’re here to tackle the toughest global challenges. The ones nobody else wants to touch. Where people are in conflict and planet problems are stuck. We’re here to unstick them. It’s not easy. It takes grit and ingenuity. And finding and working with the right partners. But we’re not called RESOLVE for nothing.
