Review of Bee Health

This beekeeper is rescuing bees with deep learning and an iPhone

May 5, 2017

From: TechCrunch

by John Mannes

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Varroa mites are a nightmare for bees and their keepers. They attach themselves to bees and quite literally suck the life out of them. Left unchecked, they can destroy entire colonies. The trick is that bees need continuous monitoring, and traditional methods of identifying Varroa are time-consuming. Varroa multiply exponentially and they can only be stopped if they’re caught early.

This is where the group’s machine learning proficiency comes into play. Because the red mites contrast strongly against the back of the bees, an object recognition algorithm can be used to quickly check batches of bee images for the pests.

BeeScanning Kickstarter from Björn Lagerman on Vimeo.

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