In the wildlife reserves of East Africa, elephants, rhinos, gorillas, and other large mammals are hunted by poachers. All that stands between these animals and harm's way are small teams of park rangers and conservationists. The danger is very real for these species on the brink: A staggering 35,000 African elephants are killed each year, putting them just a decade away from extinction, according to the non-profit RESOLVE. Technology is an increasingly critical tool for protecting elephants and other large animals, given their necessarily expansive habitats: A group of just 50 rangers in Kenya, for example, covers a reserve of 3,000 square miles. Park rangers and conservationists have used motion-activated camera traps to catch poachers in action, but the animals are tragically already lost by the time rangers can respond.

What's New: Non-profit RESOLVE's* new TrailGuard AI* camera uses Intel-powered artificial intelligence (AI) technology to detect poachers entering Africa's wildlife reserves and alert park rangers in near real-time so poachers can be stopped before killing endangered animals. TrailGuard AI builds on anti-poaching prototypes funded by Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and National Geographic Society. "By pairing AI technology with human decision-makers, we can solve some of our greatest challenges, including illegal poaching of endangered animals. With TrailGuard AI, Intel's Movidius technology enables the camera to capture suspected poacher images and alerts park rangers, who will ultimately decide the most appropriate response." How It Works: TrailGuard AI uses Intel Movidius Vision Processing Units (VPUs) for image processing, running deep neural network algorithms for object detection and image classification inside the camera.

Elephants are proverbially hard to miss, but even these huge beasts can be swallowed up in the vast plains of Africa. This is a big problem for park rangers whose job is to protect the animals from poachers. In Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, for example, there are just 150 rangers responsible for safeguarding an area of land roughly the size of Belgium. A new solution to this proposed by conservation nonprofit Resolve is to use AI-equipped cameras to act as remote lookouts. Today, Resolve announced a new custom-made device called TrailGuard AI, which uses Intel-made vision chips to identify animals and humans that wander into view.