EAS collaborate with apic.ai to develop a digital bee monitoring system
EAS Groups field Ecotox department in Niefern recently supported the tech start-up “apic ai” with their digital honey bee activity monitoring system.
Founded in August 2018, apic.ai’s expertise lies in the field of local and server-based image processing using neural networks. United in the conviction that technology can provide the basis for better decisions by creating transparency over complex interdependencies, apic.ai use their capabilities to meet the social challenge of the loss of biodiversity.
Silvio Knaebe, senior eco-toxicologist at EAS Niefern, Germany, reached out to apic.ai in Autumn 2018 offering to support the development of their digital bee monitoring system. This important technology allows for a more detailed bee activity assessment in hives. EAS provided the design for the first proof of concept study, the bee hives needed to conduct the study and help in presenting the results.
The project has been a great success!
As a result of the partnership with apic.ai, EAS now has the ability to count bees using sophisticated bee counter technology and analyse the results
It also resulted in a presentation at the last ICPPR meeting in October 2019 in Bern and subsequently, an invite to both organisations to take part in two EFSA expert meetings. Since working on this project, we have conducted two further studies with the bee activity assessment technology.
Please contact Silvio Knaebe with any questions.
