For many years, lost people and criminals have been searched for and found with the help of cameras and artificial intelligence. While not all Russians decide to go through biometrics, they decided to start introducing it with pets. To find the lost Sharik or Murka, you will no longer need to glue advertisements on the posts and post their touching pictures on social networks. It is enough to store several photos of your pet in your smartphone. Employees of Goznak spoke about the new technology to kp.ru, who launched an online service in Russia for the smart search for lost pets “Tail of Fortune” (helppet.ru).
RECOGNIZES MURKA BY 96.5%
Note that the “Tail of Fortune” was developed by JSC “Goznak” – the organization that is responsible for the uniqueness of the pattern on Russian banknotes. The brainchild of the largest banknote maker in Eastern Europe works for free and is very simple. It is enough to go through the registration, typical for all sites.
– If you have lost a cat or dog, you just need to upload a photo of the pet, which clearly shows two eyes, nose, mouth and ears. It is necessary to shoot such photographs from 1-4 meters, and most importantly, in front view. You can also additionally take a picture with a turn of the head. It is not necessary to photograph the tail, since the recognition takes place precisely on the face of the animal, ”Gleb Rudenko, press secretary of Goznak, explained to kp.ru.
The site will ask the user for the date and place of the loss of the pet. At the same time, artificial intelligence will automatically scan the ad base, and if the image of the missing animal matches the image of the found one, the system will immediately notify the user about it.
According to the specialist, the service (his mobile application will be available soon) will automatically find your pet among hundreds of thousands of animal photos. The recognition accuracy that the service demonstrates today is over 97% for dogs and over 96.5% for cats.
– The site is based on a new technology for identifying animals by photography, developed by the company's specialists. According to our estimates, the audience of the service can reach more than 1.8 million people, ”says Georgy Kornilov, director of the Research Institute, a branch of Goznak.
DEPRECIATE THE WORK OF FRAUDERS
It will be possible to submit an application not only about the missing animal, but also about the animal found on the street. It will be enough just to photograph the face of a dog or a cat in profile and full face. Thus, the site will provide an opportunity to work more efficiently for foundations and shelters.
– Organizations will also be able to replenish the site database for free with information about the animals that the owners are waiting for at home. This will help various foundations and shelters to quickly transfer pets to their owners or simply into good hands, says Kornilov.
Thus, a photograph of any lost animal from the Internet can be uploaded to the Tail of Fortune website and its true owner can be found. Or find a clone of a deceased or missing pet for yourself.
It's no secret that in large metropolitan areas there are now whole gangs that steal pets, and then extort large sums of money for treatment and hauling from their owners. And it happens that animals are deliberately disfigured in order to knock out money from readers of social networks with a tear for the treatment of the “one-eyed fuzzy”, who is alternately called Berta and Vaska on the network.
The criminal community moved to such frauds several years ago, when it became obvious that people are more willing to give money for the treatment of crippled animals than disabled people.
As a rule, attempts to expose the authors of such “touching stories” end up with their community blocking truth-lovers on social networks for “persecution.” Law enforcement agencies usually consider the collection of such “donations” to be voluntary and of little importance.
LOST PET BASE
The developers said that images outside the Tail of Luck website will not be analyzed.
– The project has no goal to form a base of photographs of all Russian pets. After the missing pet has been successfully found, the announcements related to it will be removed from public view, – stressed the President of the Russian Cynological Federation Vladimir Golubev, whose specialists are involved in the development of “Tail of Fortune”.
According to cynologists, the technology for digital identification of pets was developed by Goznak at the beginning of this year, but since then it has been “significantly improved, the ability to identify cats has been added.” According to experts, the site will allow the authorities of Russian cities to significantly reduce the cost of catching lost animals, collars, chipping, sterilization.
And the owners no longer need to think about costly chipping.
– Many owners do not microchip their pets due to the fact that in our country there is no single accounting system, and the procedure is not mandatory. The transition to digital identification of pets without the need to perform costly and painful manipulations for the pet itself is a huge step towards a more humane and responsible society. In this case, no effort is required from the owner, it is only necessary to have an ordinary smartphone with a camera on which you can take a photo of a pet, – said Golubev.
Who knows where the “Tail of Luck” will lead the artificial intelligence developed by man in the future. It is not excluded that images from the site will begin to be uploaded in the city system “Safe City”, which is already successfully looking for lost people and criminals in the crowd. And then pets on the streets of the city can be found hot on the trail before they fall into the hands of swindlers or under the wheels of a car.
