Do you know moo I am? Scientists harness gaming technology to help vets identify cows by their markings

Video gaming technology which can recognise a cow by its markings has been developed to help vets and farmers treat them more accurately and quicker than before.

The “augmented reality” headsets instantly bring up the animals identity, health and productivity records. The technology has been developed by farmers, vets, a games developer and scientists at Abertay University, Dundee.

Rather than having to sort through piles of paper detailing the medical history of a cow, scientists are working with a headset which vets can put on to identify an animal and list its previous healthcare.

The Edinburgh-based Agri-EPI Centre, a UK Government-funded centre for agricultural excellence, and UK Veterinary Group VetPartners has joined forces with experts at award-winning games developer Pocket Sized Hands and Abertay University’s School of Design and Informatics.

The SmARtview research project is being developed to be trialled on farms across the UK.

Agri-EPI head of dairy Duncan Forbes said: “The beauty of this project is that it combines farmers’ and vets’ experienced ‘eyes’ with real-time data: technology is being used to enhance, rather than replace, human skills. In addition, SmARtview could provide a solution to one of the key challenges of on-farm technology – while different devices like robotic milkers, sensors and collars can already collect plentiful data, its lack of integration limits insight to drive decision-making.”

Typically, a vet or farmer faces the time-consuming process of examining a cow then going to the farm office to review a variety of paper or computer-based records before determining what kind of intervention may be needed.

© Craig Stephen

Rachel Dean, VetPartners’ director of clinical research and excellence in practice, said: “The farming industry is changing and VetPartners wants to support farmers through this change by offering the best capabilities in terms of health, production and welfare. SmARtview has huge potential for vets and allied professionals, such as foot trimmers and veterinary technicians, who work on farms of all types and sizes.”

Abertay is a world leader in applying games technology to the business, education and healthcare sectors and the university is ranked number one in Europe for videogames education.

Abertay’s professor Ruth Falconer said: “This project brings together our research areas of AI, User Experience and games technology.” She added that their role was to develop “technology which can achieve the difficult task of recognising a cow by the patterning of its skin and shape in an environment where it is likely to be dirty and the light and weather conditions change frequently”.

Once the cow has been recognised, technology developed by Pocket Sized Hands presents it at the user’s eye level, while they can still see the real cow through their headset screen. Pocket Sized Hands chief executive Gary McCartan explained: “It’s really exciting to be applying technology we normally use in game development to the world of farming. AR combines the real world with digital assets – information that is usually tied to a screen can now be viewed in the real world.”