Fujitsu Receives 2018 Nikkei Global Environmental Technology Award for Developing a System to Survey Wildlife Habitat Using Sound Information

Fujitsu Limited today announced that, along with Fujitsu Kyushu Network Technologies Limited, it received an Award for Excellence in the 2018 Nikkei Global Environmental Technology Awards (28th Annual), held by Nikkei Inc.

This award recognizes the development of technology to support wildlife habitat surveys, such as for endangered species of birds. By using technology to automatically and accurately detect the cries of the species targeted by the survey from recorded sound data using artificial intelligence (AI), this technology significantly reduces the number of people and time required for a survey. This therefore leads to increases in survey frequency and expansion of survey areas.

The Fujitsu Group supports the preservation of biodiversity using ICT in order to create a fulfilling and sustainable society for the future.

About the Nikkei Environmental Technology Awards

The Nikkei Global Environmental Technology Awards, held by Nikkei Inc., recognize technological developments, research, and investigations that secure environmental sustainability through measures that include efforts to mitigate the effects of global warming, generate new energy through sustainable sources and/or conserve energy, recycle substances and resources, and preserve natural environments and ecosystems. The award recipients are selected through a comprehensive evaluation of the uniqueness, promise, and practicality of their efforts.

Details of the Technology

From the perspective of preserving Earth's biodiversity, there is a need to check the population status of endangered species as part of surveys of the natural environment, including environmental assessments. Currently, investigators check the populations of endangered species by entering the area and visually confirming or directly listening for the cries of the target species. This method, however, places a significant burden on investigators and makes it difficult to survey larger areas. To address this challenge, Fujitsu therefore developed software composed of the following technologies in order to automatically detect the calls of the target species by recording environmental sounds in the target survey area and analyzing the recorded sound data using AI.

• Background noise suppression
• Feature extraction from faint calls
• Call evaluation using AI

Results of Applying the Technology

When this technology was applied in a population survey for Blakiston's fish owl, an endangered species, conducted by the Wild Bird Society of Japan, the technology provided improved detection accuracy and greater survey efficiency, including massively shortening the time required for sound data analysis, contributing to an expansion in the survey area. It is also being applied to other animals, making it possible to extend the technology to any population surveys based on tracking calls (including birds, amphibians, and marine life).

Related Links

Blakiston's Fish Owl Call Recognition Project