A new drone system developed by the University of California Santa Barbara’s Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory (BOSL) aims to monitor shark activity at the beach.

The project, dubbed SharkEye, is being designed as a potential tool for keeping swimmers safe while at the beach using artificial intelligence (AI).

According to its developers, the SharkEye AI drones will alert beachgoers, who have signed up for the program, when sharks have been detected in the area.

In the event a shark is spotted, the system will instantly send a text message to those who are registered, including lifeguards, local surf shop owners and the parents or guardians of children swimming in the areas under surveillance.

To accomplish this, the system relies on video technology to collect data and analyze shark behavior. The captured recordings are then supplied to an AI-based computer vision machine learning model that enables computers to quickly scan through the collected data via drone images and videos.

Further, the AI is trained to track sharks more precisely than drone pilots who sometimes struggle to distinguish sharks from paddleboarders, seals, dolphins and kelp, for instance.

To contact the author of this article, email mdonlon@globalspec.com