{"id":187273,"date":"2023-11-17T14:06:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-18T00:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=187273"},"modified":"2023-11-17T14:06:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-18T00:06:54","slug":"ai-to-track-fish-earns-national-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/11\/17\/ai-to-track-fish-earns-national-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Using AI<\/abbr> to track island fish earns national award"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"underwater
Five fish are marked using FISHTRAC. Detecting them in underwater video can typically be relatively difficult due to the complex coral reef background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In groundbreaking research at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo, computer scientist Travis Mandel and his interdisciplinary team have garnered national acclaim for their innovative use of artificial intelligence in revolutionizing reef fish tracking. The team’s FISHTRAC software, a creation of collaboration among students, alumni and faculty, employs AI<\/abbr> to meticulously follow individual fish through video footage and photographs, providing a transformative solution to the time-consuming task of image review in the realm of marine research.<\/p>\n

\"Mandel
Travis Mandel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mandel and his team published their research paper in Pattern Recognition<\/em><\/a> this past March and recently learned they won the editor\u2019s choice award.<\/p>\n

“It certainly works better than all the other algorithms we compared it to in the paper, which was a very large number,” said Mandel who is an associate professor of computer science<\/a> and director of UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s interdisciplinary data science program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still not perfect, he explained, but the reality is the AI<\/abbr> allows for much less human effort and time in terms of someone sitting and watching a hundred videos and then drawing boxes around every frame, “because that takes forever.”<\/p>\n

FISHTRAC software<\/h2>\n

The AI<\/abbr>-based video identification would serve as an alternative to catch-and-release tagging research methods, a process that can be invasive to the fish. The central question the research team hoped to address: How can AI<\/abbr> and machine learning systems work with humans to solve real problems?<\/p>\n

Initially, Mandel was called on by environmental scientists at UH<\/abbr> Hilo to help with computer vision issues, or the ability of software to recognize objects consistently in photographs or videos. The process of teaching an AI<\/abbr> engine to learn is complex, and projects such as these are on the cutting edge of computer science and environmental science today.<\/p>\n

Although Mandel\u2019s training was not in computer vision, the pressing need for research within this field quickly presented itself.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people started reaching out to me, faculty members and grad students in different disciplines, saying, ‘Hey, can you help us with our computer vision problems?’” said Mandel.<\/p>\n

Mandel co-authored the paper with UH<\/abbr> Hilo alumni Mark Jimenez (computer science), Emily Risley (computer science), Taishi Nammoto (physics) and Rebekka Williams (mathematics). UH<\/abbr> Hilo students Meynard Ballesteros (computer science) and Bobbie Suarez (tropical conservation biology and environmental science) also served as co-authors alongside Max Panoff, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida.<\/p>\n

For more go to UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories.<\/a><\/p>\n

—By Evangeline Lemieux, who is double majoring in English and medical anthropology at UH<\/abbr> Hilo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The software employs AI<\/abbr> to meticulously follow individual fish through video footage and photographs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1602,541,758,598,107,158,14,907],"class_list":["post-187273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-ai","tag-computer-science","tag-environmental-science","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-oceanography","tag-publication","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t