Farmers may be spared the headache of constantly inspecting mothers thanks to it.
It has been claimed by Kyodo News that Nikon has pushed its imaging and artificial intelligence capabilities in an unexpected direction by developing a new system that can alert farmers when a cow is about to give birth. Farmers will be able to enhance their efficiency as a result of this product because it is meant to decrease the need to regularly examine large numbers of pregnant cows during busy birthing seasons.
Together, a security-style camera and an artificial intelligence system make up the system, which has an annual cost of 900,000 yen, which is equivalent to $6,200 for a farm that has approximately 100 cows. It makes use of a specialized smartphone application that notifies farmers when a calf is due to be born, enabling them to take proactive measures in the event that they are involved.
In the fall of 2021, Nikon began training the artificial intelligence, and in February of 2023, the company conducted proof-of-concept testing on four farms located in the southwestern region of Japan. The technology is able to recognize the symptoms that pregnant cows exhibit approximately five hours before to the onset of labor. These signs include increased movement and the commencement of the release of the amniotic sac that is contained within the calf. “We want to be able to detect when a female cow is in heat as well as other behavioral patterns,” said Kazuhiro Hirano, who works with Nikon.
According to a cattle owner who took part in the testing that were conducted the previous year, the device appears to perform its function effectively. Every year, we birth approximately sixty calves, and we had to check on the mothers every several hours beginning approximately one month before the due date of the calves. “Keita Higuchi has expressed that this system has been of great assistance.”
The consumer cameras that Nikon produces are the company’s most well-known product, but the company also produces other products such as microscopes, X-ray systems, semiconductor systems, robot vision, virtual production studios, and more. In addition to utilizing artificial intelligence technology to improve microscope imaging, the company has lately taken measures to combat the usage of fraudulent AI images by utilizing new electronic watermarking technology.