The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is developing an app for the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) to help keep an invasive stink bug out of the country.
Announcing the collaboration, Chief Executive of CSIRO, Larry Marshall said the Organisation was using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop the app to keep out brown marmorated stink bugs, “an invasive species with the potential to wipe out more than 300 different species of plants if it made it past quarantine”.
Dr Marshall said the app would use AI to identify stink bug species based on thousands of specimens held in CSIRO’s National Research Collections Australia.
“(The app) is based on a prototype co-funded by Microsoft to identify seeds of noxious weedy daisies,” Dr Marshall said
“DAWE is now trialling the app in its quarantine stations.”
Taxonomist at CSIRO, Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn said the app demonstrated the practical applications of having a rich insect database.
“We’re taking detailed digital images of the stink bugs in our insect collection, including using a 3D imaging system to take photographs from many angles,” Dr Schmidt-Lebuhn said.
“Using a smartphone camera to zoom in or out and look at the bug from different angles, the AI model in the app identifies the species and shows how likely it is to be correct,” he said.
“The app also has species profiles with example images and species information.”
Dr Schmidt-Lebuhn said users could record a photo of the bug, its identification and the geographic coordinates and local time to help build out the database and inform biosecurity responses.
He said the research team behind the app hoped to expand the work in two different directions.
“We want to add AI models for more types of biosecurity threats, beyond stink bugs, and we also hope to involve the public in biosecurity work so that people can identify and report pests and weeds,” Dr Schmidt-Lebuhn said.
