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Scientists Design Barcode System For Zebras

Posted by samzenpus on from the arranging-your-stripes dept.

A team of biologists and computer scientists has come up with a unique barcode-like system for tracking zebras called Stripespotter. The system is able to automatically identify zebras from pictures with a much higher accuracy than traditional methods. Its creators say it can be modified to track any animal with unique coat patterns such as giraffes or tigers.

58 comments

  1. It'll never work by spartacus_prime · · Score: 3, Funny

    They ALREADY look like bar codes.

    --
    If you can read this, it means that I bothered to log in.
    1. Re:It'll never work by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      And they are too heavy to move up on the checkout counter in a back-and-forth motion.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:It'll never work by JackpotMonkey · · Score: 1

      Thats why they made hand scanners

      --
      ______ Eagles may fly but monkeys don't get sucked into jet engines.
    3. Re:It'll never work by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      That's the point! Nature barcodes them for us, we just need to use a barcode reader to identify them as individuals. It's brilliant!

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    4. Re:It'll never work by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      shhhhh, it's only a model

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    5. Re:It'll never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tweeeet

      Price check!!!!!

    6. Re:It'll never work by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Funny

      OK, there's a new addition on my list of "Jobs I don't ever want to have": I don't want to be the guy who has to lift up a Zebra's tail to verify his check digit.

    7. Re:It'll never work by PitViper401 · · Score: 1

      That does sound like a pretty crappy job.

    8. Re:It'll never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it open zorse?

    9. Re:It'll never work by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      I think you'll have to do a digit check to be sure.

      --
      Eat the rich.
    10. Re:It'll never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's with all the "Scientists adjective" articles where the "scientists" can't even be called scientists - these are CS majors AT BEST. Then again they are "biologists and computer scientists" so perhaps the biologists (hard to call any of them post-Darwin scientists - there's no real research left in their field) requisitioned this system from the computer scientists, but the "Scientists adjective" still fails - and it happens all the time. It would be really cool if AT LEAST ONE SLASHDOT we could have titles that don't use the word "scientists" so liberally to mean some retard that just learned image recognition and now think's their God with humility.

    11. Re:It'll never work by davester666 · · Score: 1

      From RTFT, my first thought was that scientists had:
      1) put barcodes physically on some Zebras to identify them
      2) found that the stripes on the Zebras interfered with reading said barcodes
      3) came up with an alternative to barcodes that they could put on the Zebras that could be read without interference.

      I was disappointed to find out they were using the Zebra's native stripes as a pseudo-barcode.

      Now I will have to find another way to track individual boxes that are covered with stripes that interfere with reading barcodes.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    12. Re:It'll never work by Jurily · · Score: 1

      I propose a ban on the words "science" and "scientist". It's so vague that the only time you can use it is when you want to obscure their qualifications.

      Besides, if a "non-scientist" had done the same, would it be less newsworthy?

    13. Re:It'll never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, f___. "Cleanup on aisle 6." (Bad, zebra. Bad.)

    14. Re:It'll never work by mikael · · Score: 1

      Biology seems to be more statistics than actual anatomy these days . Most research seems to involve measuring populations over vast areas in order to document effects of various ecological events in order publish papers. Most of the time, they can't measure the whole population, so have to take samples at specific points. Then all sorts of measurments can be made - time of arrival, departure, direction of arrival, direction of departure. There are specific fields of statistics which deal with distributions over particular topologies (square grids, spheres, circles). Trying to do this counting and identification of individuals is the hard part. Easy way is to just paint-spray a catalogue number onto the side of each animal like with polar bears, or stick on an electronic tag with seals or penguins. Doing the image processing bit takes out the mundane eye-strain bit of trying to match photographs with catalogue entries as well as not harming the animal.

      It's true, the actual computer science bit is just going to be stringing together some image-processing stages (segmentation, feature vector extraction), to add a "plug-in" to a texture retrieval database, maybe as a shell or Python script. But there is still the analysis and determination of the best sets of stages and filters to use. That's the research bit.

      The Computer Science research bit as geek would know it would be developing new image recognition algorithms or optimizing the image processing algorithms using multithreading or parallel processing.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    15. Re:It'll never work by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      OK, there's a new addition on my list of "Jobs I don't ever want to have": I don't want to be the guy who has to lift up a Zebra's tail to verify his check digit.

      Just buy it a plane ticket. The airport will do that for you.
         

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I thought April Fool's was over already?

    1. Re:Eh? by easyTree · · Score: 1

      Didn't you get the memo? In Idle, it's GroundHog^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HApril Fool's day, every day of the year.

      --
      Requiem for the American Dream
  3. So now by JackpotMonkey · · Score: 2

    You really can tell a Zebra by its stripes? Or is that tigers...

    --
    ______ Eagles may fly but monkeys don't get sucked into jet engines.
  4. privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why violate the privacy of these innocent creatures? after this, they'll try to track us humans!

    1. Re:privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They already do. Fingerprints, DNA, retina scans.

    2. Re:privacy by killkillkill · · Score: 1

      Hey, if the zebras have nothing hide, they have nothing to worry about.

  5. University of Illinois at Chicago by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article didn't say who did the research, but I'm pretty sure that this was done by the CS department at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). I've seen some "zebra barcode" images up on their campus. Here's the link to their "Images of Research" page (along with a picture of the zebras:

    http://grad.uic.edu/cms/?pid=1000950

    1. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by JackpotMonkey · · Score: 3, Funny

      This may be the first time in the history of slashdot where a link to pictures of animals wasn't a trap

      --
      ______ Eagles may fly but monkeys don't get sucked into jet engines.
    2. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by kabloom · · Score: 1

      Yes, StripeSpotter is a UIC project. See the Google Code page for the software.

    3. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by 517714 · · Score: 1

      But they pixelated the wrong part of the animal.

      --
      The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
    4. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by caffeinemessiah · · Score: 1

      yup, this is a UIC project. This is the grad student who won the Image of Research prize: http://compbio.cs.uic.edu/~mayank/

      --
      An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
    5. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by TheOldestGit · · Score: 1

      I'm convinced that this is a post by a colleague of mine ;-)

      http://www.muzu.tv/colinmather/colin-mather-my-name-is-mather-official-music-video-music-video/902070?country=ww&locale=en

      BTW the Isle of Man is great - so don't bother us...

      --
      Having Leeched on /. for years I thought Hmmmmm-Subscribe!
    6. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 2

      I work in the Computer Vision and Robotics Lab (CVRL) where our office completely encapsulates the CompBio lab which published this. They only occupied a room smaller than a typical kitchen and only have a handful of people in it, but the stuff they pull off so far is amazing.

      --
      New Economic Perspectives
    7. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

      And he will be defending his dissertation on Friday.

      We might not be as famous as our sister school down in the middle of the corn field a.k.a. Chambana but we have tons of stuff that they don't have, famous people like Bill Ayers for example.

      --
      New Economic Perspectives
    8. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      And he will be defending his dissertation on Friday.

      We might not be as famous as our sister school down in the middle of the corn field a.k.a. Chambana but we have tons of stuff that they don't have, famous people like Bill Ayers for example.

      Is he barcoded too?

    9. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      Scientists have been doing it to identify and count penguins for some time now and those don't even have stripes to speak of.

      http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/news/leverhulme_grant.html

    10. Re:University of Illinois at Chicago by Idbar · · Score: 1
      The article has a link to the application, where states that they collaborated. From the code page:

      Acknowledgements

      This work is part of a project performed in the joined Princeton-UIC Computational Population Biology Course in Spring 2010 (http://compbio.cs.uic.edu/~tanya/teaching/KenyaCourse.html), with co-instructors Tanya Berger-Wolf (University of Illinois at Chicago), Daniel Rubenstein and Iain Couzin (Princeton University), who were instrumental in several parts of this research. We thank he Kenya Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (research permit MOST 13/001/29C 80Vol.11 to D.I. Rubenstein), the staff at Mpala Resarch Centre, Kenya and fellow graduate students at EEB-Princeton University and CS at University of Illinois at Chicago. Funding was provided by Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Princeton University, generous contribution by Bill Unger (for the UIC students in the course), UIC College of Engineering, Department of Computer Science at UIC, UIC Graduate Research Award (Lahiri), NSF III-CXT 0705311 (Rubenstein) and IIS-CTX-0705822 and NSF IIS-CAREER-0747369 (Berger-Wolf).

  6. BSOZ by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    I'll crash it by painting a horse with horizontal stripes.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:BSOZ by ginbot462 · · Score: 1

      Ah... the old reverse Mister Ed trick.

      --
      Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story :: Battlefield Earth : Organized Religion
  7. bored recursionists. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t

  8. Oh this totally sucks by Lord_of_the_nerf · · Score: 1

    Man, I just got used to the manual system.

    Don't ask.

    1. Re:Oh this totally sucks by JackpotMonkey · · Score: 2

      Ah but think of how much money you will save on latex gloves now.

      --
      ______ Eagles may fly but monkeys don't get sucked into jet engines.
  9. Privacy? What privacy? by mangu · · Score: 1

    why violate the privacy of these innocent creatures?

    Look, if zebras cared for their privacy, then why do they pose for pictures like these?

  10. About time.... by mtmra70 · · Score: 1

    We have had Zebra printers forever, about time we can scan what we print.

  11. ...zeebas are the mark of the Beast by dogsbreath · · Score: 2

    .. if you look carefully you will see that all zeebas have the UPC 666.

    1. Re:...zeebas are the mark of the Beast by LocalH · · Score: 1

      Good thing we're talking about zebras then, else I'd be worried.

      --
      FC Closer
    2. Re:...zeebas are the mark of the Beast by hawguy · · Score: 1

      .. if you look carefully you will see that all zeebas have the UPC 666.

      Good thing we're talking about zebras then, else I'd be worried.

      A Zeeba *is* a Zebra. It's just that crocodiles aren't great spellers.

  12. Spoiler Alert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's a zero.

  13. Scientists can finally read zebra barcodes by syousef · · Score: 1

    Scientists invented a system sounds like they're putting little checkout stickers on the zebras. What they've done is learnt to read what any imprinting newborn zebra foal must learn to read instinctively in the first couple of hours of life.

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  14. Stage 2 of this project: by Dedokta · · Score: 2

    Genetically modify Zebras to have QR codes instead of stripes.

  15. Zebra stripes decoded by heretic108 · · Score: 1

    Researchers at the University of Botswana have taken this research a step further and decoded the encoding of stripes and the underlying alphabet. One young zebra, limping along the savannah nursing his fresh wounds, was decoded to read "lions suck!" while another slightly older male's markings were decoded to read "I got deep throated by a giraffe but all I got was this lousy T-shirt".

    --
    -- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
  16. Just in time!!! by owlstead · · Score: 1

    A few more decades and we would have been out of tigers! Add another hundred and we will probably out of zebras too.

  17. they're not zebras by cstacy · · Score: 1

    These so-called "zebras" are actually horses. The scientists are being tricked because they are looking at them through COLOR video cameras, which in the natural habitat of the horses pick up vertical distortions from the background and make "stripes" appear on the animals. They are actually barcoding the terrain and vegetation, not the animals.

    There was a similar problem with a 1960s television show; if you don't believe me, check Snopes.

    1. Re:they're not zebras by Zorque · · Score: 1

      Or they could have thought of that and figured out a way to solve the problem.

  18. ZBRA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's been done before. http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/index/industry_solutions/technologies/bar_code_printing.html

  19. More than you know... by DG · · Score: 3, Funny

    On a whim, I pointed my BlackBerry with ScanLife (one of those square barcode reader apps) at the picture of the zebras in the article, and got redirected to a Groupon for discount rates on an African safari.

    Man, *everybody* has sold out.

    DG

    --
    Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
  20. New Jersey Residents? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm just sayin' - you ever see the pelts on those things? Might be a project the next time you're down the shore. Whatever.

  21. Nice work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A team of biologists and computer scientists has come up with a unique barcode-like system for tracking zebras called Stripespotter.

    cute quotes

  22. There go your taxes by Anon8---) · · Score: 1

    What a useful way to spend money !

  23. If I were a zebra by nthwaver · · Score: 1

    I'd look into getting some long trenchcoats, for anonymity.

  24. I'm actually surprised... by cyclomedia · · Score: 1

    ...that this didn't already exist, did zoologists only just learn about computers or something?

    --
    If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
  25. Well I'm just grateful... by BadgersAbout · · Score: 1

    I finally have a way to keep track of those pesky zebras running about the place who just *will not* stay where they are put. I'll sleep easy tonight.