Using neural-network soundscapes to protect natural environments

phys.org

33 points·dnetesn··7 comments

"such systems could be deployed around the globe as a means of assisting land managers with detecting illegal activities in real-time."

I doubt the problem is in detecting illegal activities harming the environment.

And deploying iot devices across million km, I highly doubt this is economically viable, even if the devices cost nothing, deploying them would be a huge investment.

Surely satellites can already do a decent job of detecting illegal activities, at scale. Research funding continues going downhill with non sensical investments.

This would be very useful for illegal mining activities as well.

I've heard of this concept some years ago, but can't recall where from at the moment.

There was the same research done with Coral reefs [1] and I thought Oregon State University did something similar in forests as well. I can provide some reef sounds if you'd really like to hear :)

[1] https://marine-conservation.org/taking-pulse-of-coral-reefs/

Maybe you could put them up on bandcamp? A lot of ambient/soundscape composers use environmental sounds.

There's also a company called Rainforest Connection using machine learning to detect deforestation: https://blog.google/technology/ai/fight-against-illegal-defo...

I've wanted to do this for a few years.

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