Recently, Dr. Niloka Kezic in Croatia got some press about his efforts to use honey bees to locate landmines. He's a long-time collaborator, and we've published together on studies of radionuclide fallout from Chernobyl. Unfortunately, with respect to landmine detection, he has not had direct access to our technologies for training bees, nor to our lasers that we use for locating and mapping bee locations with decimeter (few centimeters or inches) accuracy.
We are working on getting our system over to Croatia. As of a year ago, we finally, after only ten years, managed to put together a full turn-key system with automated bee training (conditioning) systems, two stable and highly accurate lasers (LIDAR) and built in 2-D and 3-D mapping software.
Nikola at the moment is training bees in a tent (our system negates need for a tent) and is using an infra-red camera under a balloon to find and map the bees that succeed in detecting the locations of buried landmines. He hopes to be able to use IR cameras mounted on helicopters.
Each of our systems has its own merits. Together, they should constitute a powerful tool. The United Nation's landmine experts believe our system alone could provide 10-15 fold quicker mapping capability than is currently available with dogs (the current gold standard for mine detection). We also have 100-150 yard (meter) standoff capability with our LIDAR, which is far better than the approximately 25 ft (8 m) length of a leash on a dog. We have used lasers than can detect bees at a mile distance, but lasers that powerful have a significant eye-safety issue, so we have tuned out to work a radius of about 150 yards or meters. At that range, we can minimize the eye safety issue.
We have documented and published results on the accuracy of our system for several common types of explosives (Receiver Operating Curves). We've also shown bees to be capable of detecting explosive vapors in the Parts Per Quadrillion range. We don't know whether bees or dogs are better at picking up the scents - we don't have field portable instruments that can go that low. Needless to say, it's a pretty close matchup - we have tested bees against dogs. Both animals are impressive.
Some on this list have asked about the status of our system, especially after seeing the reports from Croatia. We're glad to see that the technology is finally being recognized for this use.
A few weeks ago, Douglas Kennedy from Fox News called. He subsequently came to MT and did a story on our system that aired on Fox News Network last week in prime time. That has resulted in people asking for a link, which became available this morning. Many of you on Bee-L have also asked about the status of our technology, and a few, not surprisingly, have questioned whether this is real.
That said, here's a good look at the LIDAR and of bees at our Training System.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2803979830001/
Hope you find this interesting.
J.J. Bromenshenk
Bee Alert
Missoula, Mt
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
