Modelling Animal Biodiversity Using Acoustic Monitoring and Deep Learning

For centuries researchers have used sound to monitor and study wildlife. Traditionally, conservationists have identified species by ear; however, it is now common to deploy audio recording technology to monitor animal and ecosystem sounds. Animals use sound for communication, mating, navigation and territorial defence. Animal sounds provide valuable information and help conservationists to quantify biodiversity. Acoustic monitoring has grown in popularity due to the availability of diverse sensor types which include camera traps, portable acoustic sensors, passive acoustic sensors, and even smartphones. Passive acoustic sensors are easy to deploy and can be left running for long durations to provide insights on habitat and the sounds made by animals and illegal activity. While this technology brings enormous benefits, the amount of data that is generated makes processing a time-consuming process for conservationists. Consequently, there is interest among conservationists to automatically process acoustic data to help speed up biodiversity assessments. Processing these large data sources and extracting relevant sounds from background noise introduces significant challenges. In this paper we outline an approach for achieving this using state of the art in machine learning to automatically extract features from time-series audio signals and modelling deep learning models to classify different bird species based on the sounds they make. The acquired bird songs are processed using mel-frequency cepstrum (MFC) to extract features which are later classified using a multilayer perceptron (MLP). Our proposed method achieved promising results with 0.74 sensitivity, 0.92 specificity and an accuracy of 0.74.

BMI: A Behavior Measurement Indicator for Fuel Poverty Using Aggregated Load Readings from Smart Meters

Fuel poverty affects between 50 and 125 million households in Europe and is a significant issue for both developed and developing countries globally. This means that fuel poor residents are unable to adequately warm their home and run the necessary energy services needed for lighting, cooking, hot water, and electrical appliances. The problem is complex but is typically caused by three factors; low income, high energy costs, and energy inefficient homes. In the United Kingdom (UK), 4 million families are currently living in fuel poverty. Those in series financial difficulty are either forced to self-disconnect or have their services terminated by energy providers. Fuel poverty contributed to 10,000 reported deaths in England in the winter of 2016-2107 due to homes being cold. While it is recognized by governments as a social, public health and environmental policy issue, the European Union (EU) has failed to provide a common definition of fuel poverty or a conventional set of indicators to measure it. This chapter discusses current fuel poverty strategies across the EU and proposes a new and foundational behavior measurement indicator designed to directly assess and monitor fuel poverty risks in households using smart meters, Consumer Access Device (CAD) data and machine learning. By detecting Activities of Daily Living (ADLS) through household appliance usage, it is possible to spot the early signs of financial difficulty and identify when support packages are required.

Conservation AI: Live Stream Analysis for the Detection of Endangered Species Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Drone Technology

Many different species are adversely affected by poaching. In response to this escalating crisis, efforts to stop poaching using hidden cameras, drones and DNA tracking have been implemented with varying degrees of success. Limited resources, costs and logistical limitations are often the cause of most unsuccessful poaching interventions. The study presented in this paper outlines a flexible and interoperable framework for the automatic detection of animals and poaching activity to facilitate early intervention practices. Using a robust deep learning pipeline, a convolutional neural network is trained and implemented to detect rhinos and cars (considered an important tool in poaching for fast access and artefact transportation in natural habitats) in the study, that are found within live video streamed from drones Transfer learning with the Faster RCNN Resnet 101 is performed to train a custom model with 350 images of rhinos and 350 images of cars. Inference is performed using a frame sampling technique to address the required trade-off control precision and processing speed and maintain synchronisation with the live feed. Inference models are hosted on a web platform using flask web serving, OpenCV and TensorFlow 1.13. Video streams are transmitted from a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone using the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RMTP). The best trained Faster RCNN model achieved a mAP of 0.83 @IOU 0.50 and 0.69 @IOU 0.75 respectively. In comparison an SSD-mobilenetmodel trained under the same experimental conditions achieved a mAP of 0.55 @IOU .50 and 0.27 @IOU 0.75.The results demonstrate that using a FRCNN and off-the-shelf drones is a promising and scalable option for a range of conservation projects.

Detecting Activities of Daily Living and Routine Behaviours in Dementia Patients Living Alone Using Smart Meter Load Disaggregation

The emergence of an ageing population is a significant public health concern. This has led to an increase in the number of people living with progressive neurodegenerative disorders like dementia. Consequently, the strain this is places on health and social care services means providing 24-hour monitoring is not sustainable. Technological intervention is being considered, however no solution exists to non-intrusively monitor the independent living needs of patients with dementia. As a result many patients hit crisis point before intervention and support is provided. In parallel, patient care relies on feedback from informal carers about significant behavioural changes. Yet, not all people have a social support network and early intervention in dementia care is often missed. The smart meter rollout has the potential to change this. Using machine learning and signal processing techniques, a home energy supply can be disaggregated to detect which home appliances are turned on and off. This will allow Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) to be assessed, such as eating and drinking, and observed changes in routine to be detected for early intervention. The primary aim is to help reduce deterioration and enable patients to stay in their homes for longer. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Decision Forest classifier are modelled using data from three test homes. The trained models are then used to monitor two patients with dementia during a six-month clinical trial undertaken in partnership with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. In the case of load disaggregation for appliance detection, the SVM achieved (AUC=0.86074, Sen=0.756 and Spec=0.92838). While the Decision Forest achieved (AUC=0.9429, Sen=0.9634 and Spec=0.9634). ADLs are also analysed to identify the behavioural patterns of the occupant while detecting alterations in routine.