New facial recognition technology to help scan fish faces

If you thought facial recognition technology was only for humans, you might want to rethink. A new report suggests that soon a company would use this technology for tracking individual fish.

According to a report by Bloomberg, a Norwegian fish farming firm, Cermaq Group AS is planning to use facial recognition technology in order to track every fish among millions of farmed Atlantic salmon and check them for any parasite or disease.

By differentiating minuscule variations in the patterns of spots around the fish eyes, the company is developing the technology in order to keep its farm-grown salmon healthier along the Norwegian coast.

At present most fish farms assess salmon health as a group and not individually. With this tech, the firm will be able to track infectious diseases such as sea lice on each individual fish and separate sick fish from the healthy ones, reported Futurism.

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The company’s head researcher Harald Takle expressed his excitement to Bloomberg, “We can build a medical record for each individual fish. This will be like a revolution.”

The company is planning to implement the new software as a part of a high-tech fish farming suite they call as iFarm. The system will use a machine ‘BioSort’ vision recognition system that relies of fish biology. When the salmon comes to the water surface, a pyramid shaped device guides them into the camera that identifies their face based on the pattern of dots on their snout and gills. It will also scan their entire body, if the fish shows any sign of problem, it is then guided into a holding pen for individual treatment, explained Smithsonian.com.

“Only the fish that actually need it will be sorted out for treatment, which means typically 5 to 20 percent. This avoids stressful treatment for all the healthy fish,” said BioSort CEO Geir Stang Hauge.

Researchers estimate that the system will cut fish mortality from sea lice by 50% to 75%. They believe that the new technology will be ready for commercial use in five to six years and will likely be in high demand.

Moreover, fish aren’t the only animals being used for facial recognition. Farmers are now also finding out ways for using the technology to track the health of cows.