"Penguin Recognition System" which will be a relief to these creatures that formerly were tracked using a manual system of capturing, banding, and subsequently recapturing the penguins to read and record the banded ID codes. This labor-intensive manual system was prone to error and literally ruffled the feathers of some, perhaps many, of the captured ones. The new system is purported to be able to monitor the animals without harming them.
Adult African penguins have spotted chests and the patterns are thought by scientists to be unique. The new system replaces the grab and write methodology with the far more high tech approach of locating cameras on paths the penguins regularly pass when prancing to and fro from land to sea.
The camera software can recognize when penguins appear in the camera's field of vision and then compares the chest spots to determine if a specific creature has been previously photographed or is new to the data base. The computer then logs the location, date, time, and assigned penguin number.
Professor Barnham notes:
"The information we will get is going to be enormous, and there are questions we can answer that nobody has even thought of before."
But why stop just at penguins?
Dr Tilo Burghardt, from the Department of Computer Science at Bristol University, who has worked on the system, added: "We believe the new technology will enable biologists to identify and monitor large numbers of diverse species cheaply, quickly and automatically."
No one from the U.S. department of Justice was quoted in the BBC article, nor from Scotland Yard, but it is difficult to imagine that the technology will not someday (if not already) be used to monitor potential terrorists, tourists, taoists, teachers, tap-dancers, tile-layers, toothless tabbies and treacherous tainted toxic hippie throwbacks - unitarians and democrats too.
