SBIR Phase I: Horse Visual Identification System

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will result from creating a unique identification system using artificial intelligence (AI)-based facial recognition for horses and other animals that require vaccinations for birth control and disease inoculation. Wild horses and other wildlife that require remote vaccinations need to be identified so that populations are not over/under vaccinated. The means to vaccinate either manually or using remote technology exists, but most current methods are expensive, inhumane, or inefficient and identification is limited to photographs, sketches, memory, or RFID microchips. Federal agencies currently spend well over one hundred million dollars to deal with the problem. The commercial opportunity for a facial recognition system along with remote vaccination in this country and abroad is substantial. Wildlife managers will be able to relieve unhealthy overcrowding and allow livestock and domestic animals to co-exist with other species. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will remotely and autonomously control the explosion of the wild horse populations on the open range. There are approximately 90,000 wild horses on the open range, which is 60,000 over the allowed maximum level. This is the level which is safe for horses and other animals which share the land. The need to vaccinate horses with contraceptive birth control is necessary to control the population. This project will develop an artificial intelligence (AI) identification system for horses using facial recognition technology and couple this with remote automated vaccination at feeding stations to ensure wild horses are correctly vaccinated for birth control and inoculated against disease. A comprehensive identification system based on facial recognition has commercial and societal impact beyond vaccinations for wild horses, extending to other wild species such as deer, and also to livestock. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.