How shoring up drones with artificial intelligence helps surf lifesavers spot sharks at the beach

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 18:18:36 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/how-shoring-up-drones-with-artificial-intelligence-helps-surf-lifesavers-spot-sharks-at-the-beach-192498>

"Australian surf lifesavers are increasingly using drones to spot sharks at the
beach before they get too close to swimmers. But just how reliable are they?

Discerning whether that dark splodge in the water is a shark or just, say,
seaweed isn’t always straightforward and, in reasonable conditions, drone
pilots generally make the right call only 60% of the time. While this has
implications for public safety, it can also lead to unnecessary beach closures
and public alarm.

Engineers are trying to boost the accuracy of these shark-spotting drones with
artificial intelligence (AI). While they show great promise in the lab, AI
systems are notoriously difficult to get right in the real world, so remain out
of reach for surf lifesavers. And importantly, overconfidence in such software
can have serious consequences.

With these challenges in mind, our team set out to build the most robust shark
detector possible and test it in real-world conditions. By using masses of
data, we created a highly reliable mobile app for surf lifesavers that could
not only improve beach safety, but help monitor the health of Australian
coastlines."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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