Poaching Detection Technologies—A Survey
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paper_title: Continent-wide survey reveals massive decline in African savannah elephants

paper_content:

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are imperiled by poaching and habitat loss. Despite global attention to the plight of elephants, their population sizes and trends are uncertain or unknown over much of Africa. To conserve this iconic species, conservationists need timely, accurate data on elephant populations. Here, we report the results of the Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first continent-wide, standardized survey of African savannah elephants. We also provide the first quantitative model of elephant population trends across Africa. We estimated a population of 352,271 savannah elephants on study sites in 18 countries, representing approximately 93% of all savannah elephants in those countries. Elephant populations in survey areas with historical data decreased by an estimated 144,000 from 2007 to 2014, and populations are currently shrinking by 8% per year continent-wide, primarily due to poaching. Though 84% of elephants occurred in protected areas, many protected areas had carcass ratios that indicated high levels of elephant mortality. Results of the GEC show the necessity of action to end the African elephants’ downward trajectory by preventing poaching and protecting habitat.
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paper_title: Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research

paper_content:

Abstract Guidelines for use of wild mammal species are updated from the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) 2007 publication. These revised guidelines cover current professional techniques and regulations involving mammals used in research and teaching. They incorporate additional resources, summaries of procedures, and reporting requirements not contained in earlier publications. Included are details on marking, housing, trapping, and collecting mammals. It is recommended that institutional animal care and use committees (IACUCs), regulatory agencies, and investigators use these guidelines as a resource for protocols involving wild mammals. These guidelines were prepared and approved by the ASM, working with experienced professional veterinarians and IACUCs, whose collective expertise provides a broad and comprehensive understanding of the biology of nondomesticated mammals in their natural environments. The most current version of these guidelines and any subsequent modifications are available at the ASM Animal Care and Use Committee page of the ASM Web site (http://mammalsociety.org/committees/index.asp).
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paper_title: Effects of Global Positioning System Collar Weight on Zebra Behavior and Location Error

paper_content:

Global Positioning System (GPS) collars are increasingly being used to study fine-scale patterns of animal behavior. Previous studies on GPS collars have tried to determine the causes of location error without attempting to investigate whether the accuracy of fixes provides a correspondingly accurate measure of the animal's natural behavior. When comparing 2 types of GPS collar, we found a significant effect of collar weight and fit on the rate of travel of plains zebra (Equus burchelli antiquorum) females in the Makgadikgadi, Botswana. Although both types of collar were well within accepted norms of collar weight, the slightly heavier collars (0.6% of total body mass [TBM]) reduced rate of travel by >50% when foraging compared with the collar that was 0.4% of TBM. Collar effect was activity specific, particularly interfering with grazing behavior; the effect was less noticeable when zebras crossed larger interpatch distances. We highlight that small differences in collar weight or fit can affect specific behaviors, limiting the extrapolation of fine-scaled GPS data. This has important implications for wildlife biologists, who hitherto have assumed that collars within accepted weight limits have little or no effect on animal movement parameters.
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paper_title: Ground surveillance with mmW radar for border control and camp protection applications

paper_content:

In a world where terrorism is threatening as well civilian people as the forces involved in peacekeeping and peace enforcing missions, the protection of borderlines of regions of interest as well as military camps is a necessary demand. To maintain day- and night performance under adverse weather conditions especially with the ability to cope with dust, fog and haze or snow, radar sensors are under development. Especially the millimetre wave region offers the additional advantage of small, light weight miniature sensors with the capability to accommodate a high signal bandwidth and thus high range resolution. To demonstrate these capabilities for both millimetre wave regions, Ka- and W-band, experiments were conducted jointly by EADS, Ulm, and FGAN-FHR, Wachtberg. A low cost and easily portable 35-GHz radar, originally designed for SAR applications in small UAVs, is used for automatic detection and recognition of moving hostile objects like persons and vehicles at distances of several kilometres in a strong ground clutter environment. A similar FM-CW radar operating at 94 GHz has been used under comparable environmental conditions to gather data at this radar band. It could be shown that possible foes will be recognized and exactly localized in range, azimuth and velocity. Possible applications of such sensors embedded in protection system concepts are presented as well as signature examples, algorithm approaches and results from outdoor experiments.
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paper_title: Microwave back-projection radar for wide-area surveillance system

paper_content:

icrowave hack-projection radar techniques using transmitting and receiving array antennas have been developed for wide-area surveillance. This radar system contains two leaky coaxial cables as an antenna array, one for transmitting and one for receiving. The radar detects a trespasser by measuring the EM field level, which fluctuates when a trespasser approaches the area near the antennas, and passes through the surveillance area. In this research, we succeeded in specifying a trespass point by using the spread spectrum technique. Results from a field test proved that the detection algorithm could detect the motion of a trespasser without experiencing interference from shaking trees or rainfall.
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paper_title: Lightweight GPS-Tags, One Giant Leap for Wildlife Tracking? An Assessment Approach

paper_content:

Recent technological improvements have made possible the development of lightweight GPS-tagging devices suitable to track medium-to-small sized animals. However, current inferences concerning GPS performance are based on heavier designs, suitable only for large mammals. Lightweight GPS-units are deployed close to the ground, on species selecting micro-topographical features and with different behavioural patterns in comparison to larger mammal species. We assessed the effects of vegetation, topography, motion, and behaviour on the fix success rate for lightweight GPS-collar across a range of natural environments, and at the scale of perception of feral cats (Felis catus). Units deployed at 20 cm above the ground in sites of varied vegetation and topography showed that trees (native forest) and shrub cover had the largest influence on fix success rate (89% on average); whereas tree cover, sky availability, number of satellites and horizontal dilution of position (HDOP) were the main variables affecting location error (±39.5 m and ±27.6 m before and after filtering outlier fixes). Tests on HDOP or number of satellites-based screening methods to remove inaccurate locations achieved only a small reduction of error and discarded many accurate locations. Mobility tests were used to simulate cats' motion, revealing a slightly lower performance as compared to the fixed sites. GPS-collars deployed on 43 cats showed no difference in fix success rate by sex or season. Overall, fix success rate and location error values were within the range of previous tests carried out with collars designed for larger species. Lightweight GPS-tags are a suitable method to track medium to small size species, hence increasing the range of opportunities for spatial ecology research. However, the effects of vegetation, topography and behaviour on location error and fix success rate need to be evaluated prior to deployment, for the particular study species and their habitats.
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paper_title: Animals as Mobile Biological Sensors for Forest Fire Detection

paper_content:

This paper proposes a mobile biological sensor system that can assist in earlydetection of forest fires one of the most dreaded natural disasters on the earth. The main ideapresented in this paper is to utilize animals with sensors as Mobile Biological Sensors(MBS). The devices used in this system are animals which are native animals living inforests, sensors (thermo and radiation sensors with GPS features) that measure thetemperature and transmit the location of the MBS, access points for wireless communicationand a central computer system which classifies of animal actions. The system offers twodifferent methods, firstly: access points continuously receive data about animals’ locationusing GPS at certain time intervals and the gathered data is then classified and checked tosee if there is a sudden movement (panic) of the animal groups: this method is called animalbehavior classification (ABC). The second method can be defined as thermal detection(TD): the access points get the temperature values from the MBS devices and send the datato a central computer to check for instant changes in the temperatures. This system may beused for many purposes other than fire detection, namely animal tracking, poachingprevention and detecting instantaneous animal death.
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paper_title: Next generation of GUIDAR technology

paper_content:

The next generation of guided radar (GUIDAR) is based on ultra wide band (UWB) radar signal processing. Just as spread spectrum technology has revolutionized the communications industry UWB is dramatically changing radar signal processing. These advanced signal processing techniques are adapted to leaky coaxial cable technology in the next generation GUIDAR to provide new features and enhanced performance. At the core of the new technology is an ultra high-speed digital correlator implemented in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Complementary orthogonal codes based on Golay codes are used to produce thumbtack correlation functions simultaneously in multiple range bins. The net result is "near continuous wave (CW)" performance (97% duty cycle) in forty to eighty 11.6-meter long-range bins with targets located within one meter along the length of cable. This is a dramatic improvement over the 3% duty cycle of the original GUIDAR and the typical 100 to 200 meter long zones of current CW leaky cable sensors. Orthogonal complementary codes are transmitted on each of two leaky coaxial cables. The responses from the parallel receive cables are fed to a direct digital receiver. The orthogonal nature of the code allows the composite coded pulse response to be de-multiplexed into the independent response for each of the two cables. This ultra-high speed correlation process involves the addition and subtraction of the sampled in-phase and quadrature-phase responses to the multiple range bin accumulators at 10 million samples per second. Synchronous sampling at twice the chip rate ensures that each target is observed in three adjacent sample bins. The phase and amplitude response in the three adjacent samples are combined to precisely pinpoint (within 1 meter) the locations of targets along the length of each of the two cables. The ability to precisely locate and track multiple simultaneous targets on each of two cables leads to numerous new features and performance benefits relative to existing leaky cable sensors. With a separate calibrated threshold for every meter of cable the sensor sensitivity is much more uniform and installation restrictions on burial depth, cable spacing, and medium homogeneity can be relaxed. Potential sources of nuisance alarms can easily be located and overcome. The pinpoint location can be used to provide better CCTV assessment, target capture for video motion sensors and more effective response to intrusions. Through the use of parallel cables the sensor can be used to detect the direction of crossing and to classify targets such as small animals, people, and vehicles. This patented next generation of GUIDAR technology represents a dramatic step forward from that which was introduced at the 1976 Carnahan Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, and the numerous CW leaky coaxial cable sensors that evolved from that work. This technology effectively addresses residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental requirements including those relating to homeland security, military operations, and prisons.
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paper_title: Millimeter wave radar for perimeter surveillance and detection of MAVs (Micro Aerial Vehicles)

paper_content:

In this paper we present two possible approaches for perimeter surveillance with radar techniques. The main task of such radars is to detect movements of targets such as an individual or a vehicle approaching a facility. The systems typically cover a range of several hundred meters up to several kilometers. In particular the capability of identifying remote-controlled Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs), which pose a growing threat on critical infrastructure areas, is of great importance nowadays. The low cost, the easy handling, and a considerable payload make them an excellent tool for unwanted surveillance or attacks. Most platforms can be equipped with all kind of sensors or, in the worst case, with explosive devices. A typical MAV is able to take off and land vertically, to hover, and in many cases to fly forward with a high speed. Thus, it can reach all kinds of sites in short time while the concealed operator of the MAV is at a remote and riskless place.
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paper_title: A line in the sand: A wireless sensor network for target detection, classification, and tracking

paper_content:

Intrusion detection is a surveillance problem of practical import that is well suited to wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we study the application of sensor networks to the intrusion detection problem and the related problems of classifying and tracking targets. Our approach is based on a dense, distributed, wireless network of multi-modal resource-poor sensors combined into loosely coherent sensor arrays that perform in situ detection, estimation, compression, and exfiltration. We ground our study in the context of a security scenario called "A Line in the Sand" and accordingly define the target, system, environment, and fault models. Based on the performance requirements of the scenario and the sensing, communication, energy, and computation ability of the sensor network, we explore the design space of sensors, signal processing algorithms, communications, networking, and middleware services. We introduce the influence field, which can be estimated from a network of binary sensors, as the basis for a novel classifier. A contribution of our work is that we do not assume a reliable network; on the contrary, we quantitatively analyze the effects of network unreliability on application performance. Our work includes multiple experimental deployments of over 90 sensor nodes at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL, as well as other field experiments of comparable scale. Based on these experiences, we identify a set of key lessons and articulate a few of the challenges facing extreme scaling to tens or hundreds of thousands of sensor nodes.
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paper_title: Benefits of wide-area intrusion detection systems using FMCW radar

paper_content:

The history of perimeter protection is based on building fences. That basic concept evolved into detecting activity along ::: fences using a variety of sensors. Today a wide variety of fiber and wire-based sensors are available to mount on a fence, ::: and many different types of IR, radar, optical, seismic and acoustic sensors to place along the fence line. Generally some ::: camera support is provided, with the cameras programmed to point to pre-set locations along the fence. A more robust perimeter protection would consist of wide area sensors with the capability to look out beyond the fence to detect potential intrusion and track intruders. In looking beyond the perimeter, wide area sensors can provide precious time to plan and initiate the appropriate response. In addition, because they sweep a 360-degree circle, the sensors can ::: provide continued tracking of the intrusion, greatly enhancing the effectiveness and safety of the response team. The new ::: wide-area concept consists of using modern radar technology for wide area detection of objects which are moving, and ::: then using the precise location information from the radar to point a camera for assessment. Without having to ::: continually stare at a bank of video monitors, the operator is presented with the location, direction of travel and ::: identification and number of potential intruders, all in a matter of seconds. This paper presents the features of this new wide area system, followed by an overview of radar technology. It closes ::: with a discussion on the benefits of the FMCW topology over Pulse Doppler in security and surveillance applications.
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paper_title: Design of a fence surveillance system based on wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a real application system based on wireless sensor network (WSN) for fence surveillance which is implemented on our development platform for WSN, called ANTS (An evolvable Network of Tiny Sensors). Our system, called the WFS system, is expanded to connect and control a robot (UGV/UAV) and a camera sensor network for the purpose of fence surveillance. Two kinds of sensor nodes, ground nodes and fence nodes, are deployed and collaborative detection is performed and the result is reported to the base station (BS). The BS does not only give a control message to the camera to show the place where an event has occurred, but it also issue orders to the robots to extend the communication distance of the system, to approach and sense the object more precisely, or even to attack an enemy autonomously. This paper describes various techniques and know-how to fulfill a WSN-based integrated surveillance system. A new adaptive threshold algorithm to detect intruders is proposed and some sensing results in the real field of our system are shown. In conclusion, we show the high accuracy of the WFS system.
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paper_title: VigilNet: An integrated sensor network system for energy-efficient surveillance

paper_content:

This article describes one of the major efforts in the sensor network community to build an integrated sensor network system for surveillance missions. The focus of this effort is to acquire and verify information about enemy capabilities and positions of hostile targets. Such missions often involve a high element of risk for human personnel and require a high degree of stealthiness. Hence, the ability to deploy unmanned surveillance missions, by using wireless sensor networks, is of great practical importance for the military. Because of the energy constraints of sensor devices, such systems necessitate an energy-aware design to ensure the longevity of surveillance missions. Solutions proposed recently for this type of system show promising results through simulations. However, the simplified assumptions they make about the system in the simulator often do not hold well in practice, and energy consumption is narrowly accounted for within a single protocol. In this article, we describe the design and implementation of a complete running system, called VigilNet, for energy-efficient surveillance. The VigilNet allows a group of cooperating sensor devices to detect and track the positions of moving vehicles in an energy-efficient and stealthy manner. We evaluate VigilNet middleware components and integrated system extensively on a network of 70 MICA2 motes. Our results show that our surveillance strategy is adaptable and achieves a significant extension of network lifetime. Finally, we share lessons learned in building such an integrated sensor system.
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paper_title: A line in the sand: A wireless sensor network for target detection, classification, and tracking

paper_content:

Intrusion detection is a surveillance problem of practical import that is well suited to wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we study the application of sensor networks to the intrusion detection problem and the related problems of classifying and tracking targets. Our approach is based on a dense, distributed, wireless network of multi-modal resource-poor sensors combined into loosely coherent sensor arrays that perform in situ detection, estimation, compression, and exfiltration. We ground our study in the context of a security scenario called "A Line in the Sand" and accordingly define the target, system, environment, and fault models. Based on the performance requirements of the scenario and the sensing, communication, energy, and computation ability of the sensor network, we explore the design space of sensors, signal processing algorithms, communications, networking, and middleware services. We introduce the influence field, which can be estimated from a network of binary sensors, as the basis for a novel classifier. A contribution of our work is that we do not assume a reliable network; on the contrary, we quantitatively analyze the effects of network unreliability on application performance. Our work includes multiple experimental deployments of over 90 sensor nodes at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL, as well as other field experiments of comparable scale. Based on these experiences, we identify a set of key lessons and articulate a few of the challenges facing extreme scaling to tens or hundreds of thousands of sensor nodes.
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paper_title: Energy-efficient surveillance system using wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

The focus of surveillance missions is to acquire and verify information about enemy capabilities and positions of hostile targets. Such missions often involve a high element of risk for human personnel and require a high degree of stealthiness. Hence, the ability to deploy unmanned surveillance missions, by using wireless sensor networks, is of great practical importance for the military. Because of the energy constraints of sensor devices, such systems necessitate an energy-aware design to ensure the longevity of surveillance missions. Solutions proposed recently for this type of system show promising results through simulations. However, the simplified assumptions they make about the system in the simulator often do not hold well in practice and energy consumption is narrowly accounted for within a single protocol. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a running system for energy-efficient surveillance. The system allows a group of cooperating sensor devices to detect and track the positions of moving vehicles in an energy-efficient and stealthy manner. We can trade off energy-awareness and surveillance performance by adaptively adjusting the sensitivity of the system. We evaluate the performance on a network of 70 MICA2 motes equipped with dual-axis magnetometers. Our results show that our surveillance strategy is adaptable and achieves a significant extension of network lifetime. Finally, we share lessons learned in building such a complete running system.
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paper_title: Design of a fence surveillance system based on wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a real application system based on wireless sensor network (WSN) for fence surveillance which is implemented on our development platform for WSN, called ANTS (An evolvable Network of Tiny Sensors). Our system, called the WFS system, is expanded to connect and control a robot (UGV/UAV) and a camera sensor network for the purpose of fence surveillance. Two kinds of sensor nodes, ground nodes and fence nodes, are deployed and collaborative detection is performed and the result is reported to the base station (BS). The BS does not only give a control message to the camera to show the place where an event has occurred, but it also issue orders to the robots to extend the communication distance of the system, to approach and sense the object more precisely, or even to attack an enemy autonomously. This paper describes various techniques and know-how to fulfill a WSN-based integrated surveillance system. A new adaptive threshold algorithm to detect intruders is proposed and some sensing results in the real field of our system are shown. In conclusion, we show the high accuracy of the WFS system.
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paper_title: African Elephants Respond to Distant Playbacks of Low-Frequency Conspecific Calls

paper_content:

We conducted 58 playback experiments with free-ranging African elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia, to estimate the distance over which some of their low-frequency calls are audible to other elephants. We broadcast pre-recorded elephant calls to elephants that were 1.2 and 2.0 km from the speaker while making simultaneous video and audio recordings of their behavior. In order to reduce the risk of habituation, we used a variety of call types as stimuli. Elephants responded to playbacks at both 1.2 and 2.0 km, with a full response consisting of the elephant vocalizing, lifting and spreading its ears, remaining motionless in this position (‘freezing’), moving the head from side to side (‘scanning’) and, in the case of males responding to female estrous calls, orienting to and finally walking 1 km or more towards the loudspeaker. We analyzed our data quantitatively for three of these responses. The occurrence of each behavior increased substantially immediately after playbacks. Owing to limitations of the loudspeaker, we were only able to broadcast calls at half the sound pressure level (i.e. −6dB) of the strongest calls we have recorded. Since sound at the frequencies of these calls is predicted to suffer from little, if any, attenuation in excess of that caused by spherical spreading, we estimate these calls to be audible to elephants at least 4 km from the source (twice the distance over which we documented responses). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the very low-frequency calls of elephants function in communication between individuals and groups of elephants separated by distances of several kilometers.
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paper_title: Algorithm for Gunshot Detection Using Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC)

paper_content:

Protection of forests and wildlife needs efficient, reliable, and real-time detection of events such as gunshots, wood cutting, distress call of animals, etc. In this paper, we propose a gunshot detection technique through acoustic signal pattern recognition utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC). In this work, MFCC is used to extract the features of gunshots from prerecorded analog sound files. Training of the system for gunshot detection has been done using a three layer Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) using extracted parameters of acoustic signals. For the creation of the database, 150 prerecorded gunshots have been used. From the database, 80 gunshot sound samples have been used for the training of the system. Testing has been done with the remaining 70 samples in the presence of noise. The algorithm has also been tested successfully using actual gunshot in noisy environment. Efficiency of algorithm is 95 % without noise and that decreases to 85 % in the presence of noise.
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paper_title: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems as a Rhinoceros Anti-Poaching Tool in Africa

paper_content:

Over the last years there has been a massive increase in rhinoceros poaching incidents, with more than two individuals killed per day in South Africa in the first months of 2013. Immediate actions are needed to preserve current populations and the agents involved in their protection are demanding new technologies to increase their efficiency in the field. We assessed the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) to monitor for poaching activities. We performed 20 flights with 3 types of cameras: visual photo, HD video and thermal video, to test the ability of the systems to detect (a) rhinoceros, (b) people acting as poachers and (c) to do fence surveillance. The study area consisted of several large game farms in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The targets were better detected at the lowest altitudes, but to operate the plane safely and in a discreet way, altitudes between 100 and 180 m were the most convenient. Open areas facilitated target detection, while forest habitats complicated it. Detectability using visual cameras was higher at morning and midday, but the thermal camera provided the best images in the morning and at night. Considering not only the technical capabilities of the systems but also the poacherś modus operandi and the current control methods, we propose RPAS usage as a tool for surveillance of sensitive areas, for supporting field anti-poaching operations, as a deterrent tool for poachers and as a complementary method for rhinoceros ecology research. Here, we demonstrate that low cost RPAS can be useful for rhinoceros stakeholders for field control procedures. There are, however, important practical limitations that should be considered for their successful and realistic integration in the anti-poaching battle.
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paper_title: Design of a fence surveillance system based on wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a real application system based on wireless sensor network (WSN) for fence surveillance which is implemented on our development platform for WSN, called ANTS (An evolvable Network of Tiny Sensors). Our system, called the WFS system, is expanded to connect and control a robot (UGV/UAV) and a camera sensor network for the purpose of fence surveillance. Two kinds of sensor nodes, ground nodes and fence nodes, are deployed and collaborative detection is performed and the result is reported to the base station (BS). The BS does not only give a control message to the camera to show the place where an event has occurred, but it also issue orders to the robots to extend the communication distance of the system, to approach and sense the object more precisely, or even to attack an enemy autonomously. This paper describes various techniques and know-how to fulfill a WSN-based integrated surveillance system. A new adaptive threshold algorithm to detect intruders is proposed and some sensing results in the real field of our system are shown. In conclusion, we show the high accuracy of the WFS system.
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paper_title: Detecting border intrusion using wireless sensor network and artificial neural network

paper_content:

Monitoring movement across national borders is a challenging problem due to several economic and technical issues. Due to the vast size, remoteness and other geographical confines of border regions, technical solutions are necessary to complement the limitations of manpower. In this paper we discuss our research in developing a system for detecting border intrusion activity by combining wireless sensor networks with artificial neural networks (ANNs). The key idea is to use ANN models to discover distinct patterns that describe an intrusion activity and use these patterns to train the ANN model which will then recognize intrusions and other abnormalities. We present a border intrusion detection system in which light and sound data from low-cost sensor motes spread out on the field is used to help ANNs make automated decisions and report intrusion activity. Our experimental results show that our border intrusion detection system can be used to monitor the borders without constant human supervision1.
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paper_title: A Wildlife Monitoring System Based on Wireless Image Sensor Networks

paper_content:

Survival and development of wildlife sustains the balance and stability of the entire ecosystem. Wildlife monitoring can provide lots of information such as wildlife species, quantity, habits, quality of life and habitat conditions, to help researchers grasp the status and dynamics of wildlife resources, and to provide basis for the effective protection, sustainable use, and scientific management of wildlife resources. Wildlife monitoring is the foundation of wildlife protection and management. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology has become the most popular technology in the field of information. With advance of the CMOS image sensor technology, wireless sensor networks combined with image sensors, namely Wireless Image Sensor Networks (WISN) technology, has emerged as an alternative in monitoring applications. Monitoring wildlife is one of its most promising applications. In this paper, system architecture of the wildlife monitoring system based on the wireless image sensor networks was presented to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional monitoring methods. Specifically, some key issues including design of wireless image sensor nodes and software process design have been studied and presented. A self-powered rotatable wireless infrared image sensor node based on ARM and an aggregation node designed for large amounts of data were developed. In addition, their corresponding software was designed. The proposed system is able to monitor wildlife accurately, automatically, and remotely in all-weather condition, which lays foundations for applications of wireless image sensor networks in wildlife monitoring. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
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paper_title: BorderSense: Border patrol through advanced wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

The conventional border patrol systems suffer from intensive human involvement. Recently, unmanned border patrol systems employ high-tech devices, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, unattended ground sensors, and surveillance towers equipped with camera sensors. However, any single technique encounters inextricable problems, such as high false alarm rate and line-of-sight-constraints. There lacks a coherent system that coordinates various technologies to improve the system accuracy. In this paper, the concept of BorderSense, a hybrid wireless sensor network architecture for border patrol systems, is introduced. BorderSense utilizes the most advanced sensor network technologies, including the wireless multimedia sensor networks and the wireless underground sensor networks. The framework to deploy and operate BorderSense is developed. Based on the framework, research challenges and open research issues are discussed.
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paper_title: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems as a Rhinoceros Anti-Poaching Tool in Africa

paper_content:

Over the last years there has been a massive increase in rhinoceros poaching incidents, with more than two individuals killed per day in South Africa in the first months of 2013. Immediate actions are needed to preserve current populations and the agents involved in their protection are demanding new technologies to increase their efficiency in the field. We assessed the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) to monitor for poaching activities. We performed 20 flights with 3 types of cameras: visual photo, HD video and thermal video, to test the ability of the systems to detect (a) rhinoceros, (b) people acting as poachers and (c) to do fence surveillance. The study area consisted of several large game farms in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The targets were better detected at the lowest altitudes, but to operate the plane safely and in a discreet way, altitudes between 100 and 180 m were the most convenient. Open areas facilitated target detection, while forest habitats complicated it. Detectability using visual cameras was higher at morning and midday, but the thermal camera provided the best images in the morning and at night. Considering not only the technical capabilities of the systems but also the poacherś modus operandi and the current control methods, we propose RPAS usage as a tool for surveillance of sensitive areas, for supporting field anti-poaching operations, as a deterrent tool for poachers and as a complementary method for rhinoceros ecology research. Here, we demonstrate that low cost RPAS can be useful for rhinoceros stakeholders for field control procedures. There are, however, important practical limitations that should be considered for their successful and realistic integration in the anti-poaching battle.
---
paper_title: A Wildlife Monitoring System Based on Wireless Image Sensor Networks

paper_content:

Survival and development of wildlife sustains the balance and stability of the entire ecosystem. Wildlife monitoring can provide lots of information such as wildlife species, quantity, habits, quality of life and habitat conditions, to help researchers grasp the status and dynamics of wildlife resources, and to provide basis for the effective protection, sustainable use, and scientific management of wildlife resources. Wildlife monitoring is the foundation of wildlife protection and management. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology has become the most popular technology in the field of information. With advance of the CMOS image sensor technology, wireless sensor networks combined with image sensors, namely Wireless Image Sensor Networks (WISN) technology, has emerged as an alternative in monitoring applications. Monitoring wildlife is one of its most promising applications. In this paper, system architecture of the wildlife monitoring system based on the wireless image sensor networks was presented to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional monitoring methods. Specifically, some key issues including design of wireless image sensor nodes and software process design have been studied and presented. A self-powered rotatable wireless infrared image sensor node based on ARM and an aggregation node designed for large amounts of data were developed. In addition, their corresponding software was designed. The proposed system is able to monitor wildlife accurately, automatically, and remotely in all-weather condition, which lays foundations for applications of wireless image sensor networks in wildlife monitoring. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
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paper_title: Poacher detection at fence crossing

paper_content:

Poachers profit from the illegal trade of animal parts. Elephants and rhinoceros are often the target of poachers. In South Africa areas of private reserves agreed to drop fences bordering Kruger National Park. At same time they keep fences that don't boarder the park. Poachers are crossing these fence lines. This paper discusses a work in progress to develop sensors to detect poachers as they cross the fence line.
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paper_title: Wide-area Surveillance Sensor with Leaky Coaxial Cables

paper_content:

This paper presents a microwave sensing system for wide-area surveillance that comprises two leaky coaxial cables, one for transmitting and the other for receiving. The sensor detects an intrusion by measuring the electromagnetic field level, which fluctuates when an intruder approaches and passes through the surveillance area. In this research, we have succeeded in specifying an intrusion point by applying the spread-spectrum technique. Results from a field test prove that the detection algorithm could detect the motion of an intruder without experiencing interference from shaking trees or rainfall.
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paper_title: Leaky Coaxial Cable Resource Protection Sensor Performance Analysis

paper_content:

The performance of an RF intrusion detection system which uses a leaky coaxial cable sensor is analyzed. A simple cable sensor field model is assumed which gives good agreement between the computed response and observation. Expressions that describe the performance of several deployment configurations and receiver types are developed. The probability of detection and the zone of containment are computed and their uniformity is examined as a function of cable propagation constants.
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paper_title: Next generation of GUIDAR technology

paper_content:

The next generation of guided radar (GUIDAR) is based on ultra wide band (UWB) radar signal processing. Just as spread spectrum technology has revolutionized the communications industry UWB is dramatically changing radar signal processing. These advanced signal processing techniques are adapted to leaky coaxial cable technology in the next generation GUIDAR to provide new features and enhanced performance. At the core of the new technology is an ultra high-speed digital correlator implemented in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Complementary orthogonal codes based on Golay codes are used to produce thumbtack correlation functions simultaneously in multiple range bins. The net result is "near continuous wave (CW)" performance (97% duty cycle) in forty to eighty 11.6-meter long-range bins with targets located within one meter along the length of cable. This is a dramatic improvement over the 3% duty cycle of the original GUIDAR and the typical 100 to 200 meter long zones of current CW leaky cable sensors. Orthogonal complementary codes are transmitted on each of two leaky coaxial cables. The responses from the parallel receive cables are fed to a direct digital receiver. The orthogonal nature of the code allows the composite coded pulse response to be de-multiplexed into the independent response for each of the two cables. This ultra-high speed correlation process involves the addition and subtraction of the sampled in-phase and quadrature-phase responses to the multiple range bin accumulators at 10 million samples per second. Synchronous sampling at twice the chip rate ensures that each target is observed in three adjacent sample bins. The phase and amplitude response in the three adjacent samples are combined to precisely pinpoint (within 1 meter) the locations of targets along the length of each of the two cables. The ability to precisely locate and track multiple simultaneous targets on each of two cables leads to numerous new features and performance benefits relative to existing leaky cable sensors. With a separate calibrated threshold for every meter of cable the sensor sensitivity is much more uniform and installation restrictions on burial depth, cable spacing, and medium homogeneity can be relaxed. Potential sources of nuisance alarms can easily be located and overcome. The pinpoint location can be used to provide better CCTV assessment, target capture for video motion sensors and more effective response to intrusions. Through the use of parallel cables the sensor can be used to detect the direction of crossing and to classify targets such as small animals, people, and vehicles. This patented next generation of GUIDAR technology represents a dramatic step forward from that which was introduced at the 1976 Carnahan Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, and the numerous CW leaky coaxial cable sensors that evolved from that work. This technology effectively addresses residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental requirements including those relating to homeland security, military operations, and prisons.
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paper_title: Pattern analysis for human intrusion detection with Leaky Coaxial Cables

paper_content:

This paper presents a pattern analysis technique for human intrusion detection with a pair of Leaky Coaxial Cables (LCX). The LCXs are placed on the ground along the border of the site. When an object crosses the LCXs, the microwave radiated from the transmitting LCX is fluctuated. The sensor unit connecting the receiving LCX catches the fluctuating signals, then pattern analysis using the in-phase and the quadrature phase (I/Q) signals is utilized to recognize human intrusion. Our new approach uses two types of signals emitted from the LCXs, the radiation mode signal and the surface mode signal. Two types of I/Q patterns are obtained simultaneously. This double pattern analysis successfully reduces many of the false alarms compared with former approaches.
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paper_title: Intelligent fence intrusion detection system: detection of intentional fence breaching and recognition of fence climbing

paper_content:

Perimeter fencing is widely used to isolate and protect public and private places such as airports, military bases, power stations and construction zones against unauthorized accesses. Fence structures merely prevent a percentage of intrusions or postpone them. A higher level of security is needed to monitor and investigate activities on or around the fences. The Fence Intrusion Detection System (FIDS) is one of Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS) focusing on the fence intrusions. In general, there is no system practically available to classify suspicious activities; whether the activity was due to the strong wind turbulent or climbing of a person on the fence.
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paper_title: Cost effective security system integration

paper_content:

In earlier papers Senstar-Stellar outlined an integrated system of security devices that included control, communications and assessment capabilities. This paper reports on this new generation of systems, which features a cost-effective, easily scalable system platform that is applicable from small standalone security installations to larger networked systems. The main elements of this new system include: the integration of a wide variety of distributed sensor and device inputs and outputs; a redundant network with a fast and predictable response time; a multi-station operator control and display system that uses a real-time operating system and provides multiple interface device and language support; a centralized setup and maintenance system; and integrated assessment that provides sensory feedback. This paper outlines the system elements, including the new smart sensor components, illustrated by sample configurations that provide robust and economical security solutions for both small and large site applications.
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paper_title: Intrepid MicroPoint system - European fence experience

paper_content:

When Southwest Microwave introduced the Intrepid MicroPoint fence disturbance sensor at the 1994 Carnahan Conference, it was primarily directed at chain link fencing. While the vast majority of fencing in North America is of the chain link variety this is certainly not true in Europe where a plethora of fence types are in use. Steel Palisade fencing, the most common type of fence installed in the UK today, does not even exist in North America. Since the fence structure and fence fabric become an integral part of the sensor when a fence disturbance cable is applied it is not surprising that Southwest Microwave has gone through a learning curve as MicroPoint is tested and applied to European fences. This paper describes some of the lessons learned over the past 8 years. In describing the effects of the fence type on the MicroPoint system, one must naturally consider the threat, as this too has a profound effect on where the cable should be located on the fence structure and also determines how the sensor should be tested. While new installation techniques and set up procedures have evolved based on the European experience, the basic MicroPoint TDR type of signal processing has proven to be very robust. The ability to not only detect the presence of an intruder but to accurately locate the intruder along the length of the cable has been proven to provide a number of significant benefits. As a result, Southwest Microwave has an office in the UK and the Intrepid MicroPoint System is now being used in at least 8 European countries.
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paper_title: Poacher detection at fence crossing

paper_content:

Poachers profit from the illegal trade of animal parts. Elephants and rhinoceros are often the target of poachers. In South Africa areas of private reserves agreed to drop fences bordering Kruger National Park. At same time they keep fences that don't boarder the park. Poachers are crossing these fence lines. This paper discusses a work in progress to develop sensors to detect poachers as they cross the fence line.
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paper_title: Fence Monitoring - Experimental Evaluation of a Use Case for Wireless Sensor Networks

paper_content:

In-network data processing and event detection on resource-constrained devices are widely regarded as distinctive and novel features of wireless sensor networks. The vision is that through cooperation of many sensor nodes the accuracy of event detection can be greatly improved. On the practical side however, little real-world experience exists in how far these goals can be achieved. ::: ::: In this paper, we present the results of a small deployment of sensor nodes attached to a fence with the goal of collaboratively detecting and reporting security relevant incidents, such as a person climbing over the fence. Based on experimental data we discuss in detail the process of innetwork event detection both from the conceptual side and by evaluating the results obtained. Reusing the same traces in a simulated network, we also look into the impact of multi-hop event reporting.
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paper_title: Fiber optic fence sensor developments

paper_content:

Many detection technologies have been employed for perimeter detection, to sensitize a barrier. These outdoor perimeter fence detection sensors must reliably detect intruders attempting to cut or climb the barrier, while ignoring the effects of environmental noise, including nearby activity. In recent conference proceedings, the new IntelliFIBER/spl trade/ fiber optic based product was introduced and compared with previous technologies. IntelliFIBER is designed to provide the advantages of a nonconductive "dielectric" cable sensor, e.g., resistance to electromagnetic interference and the ability to provide longer cable zones. It utilizes the proven processor of the Intelli-FLEX/spl trade/ triboelectric cable fence sensor, which provides relay or bidirectional networked serial communications and is compatible with its calibration module. IntelliFIBER also capitalizes on the Intelli-FLEX's adaptive detection algorithms that were developed through extensive field-testing, to provide exceptional immunity to environmental alarms while still detecting the skilled intruder.
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paper_title: Design of a fence surveillance system based on wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a real application system based on wireless sensor network (WSN) for fence surveillance which is implemented on our development platform for WSN, called ANTS (An evolvable Network of Tiny Sensors). Our system, called the WFS system, is expanded to connect and control a robot (UGV/UAV) and a camera sensor network for the purpose of fence surveillance. Two kinds of sensor nodes, ground nodes and fence nodes, are deployed and collaborative detection is performed and the result is reported to the base station (BS). The BS does not only give a control message to the camera to show the place where an event has occurred, but it also issue orders to the robots to extend the communication distance of the system, to approach and sense the object more precisely, or even to attack an enemy autonomously. This paper describes various techniques and know-how to fulfill a WSN-based integrated surveillance system. A new adaptive threshold algorithm to detect intruders is proposed and some sensing results in the real field of our system are shown. In conclusion, we show the high accuracy of the WFS system.
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paper_title: Problems in seismic detection and tracking

paper_content:

One can detect and track vehicles and personnel using a three-component seismic velocity transducer. Persons or vehicles moving over ground generate a succession of impacts; these soil disturbances propagate away from the source as seismic waves. Because the soil is an elastic medium both vertical and longitudinal waves propagate, diminishing in intensity as R-2. Furthermore because the surface of the soil is the boundary of an elastic space, a Rayleigh surface wave is also generated, diminishing in intensity as R-1. This surface wave is a vector wave that can be used to track the source. In addition to the classic model of surface waves on an elastic half space we discuss special features of seismic measurements. Among these are: contamination of the seismic signal by local acoustic waves, the excess non-geometric attenuation of the seismic signal, the influence of reflections from layered soil in tracking personnel, and finally a method of ranging using the periodic impact signature of vehicles.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
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paper_title: BorderSense: Border patrol through advanced wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

The conventional border patrol systems suffer from intensive human involvement. Recently, unmanned border patrol systems employ high-tech devices, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, unattended ground sensors, and surveillance towers equipped with camera sensors. However, any single technique encounters inextricable problems, such as high false alarm rate and line-of-sight-constraints. There lacks a coherent system that coordinates various technologies to improve the system accuracy. In this paper, the concept of BorderSense, a hybrid wireless sensor network architecture for border patrol systems, is introduced. BorderSense utilizes the most advanced sensor network technologies, including the wireless multimedia sensor networks and the wireless underground sensor networks. The framework to deploy and operate BorderSense is developed. Based on the framework, research challenges and open research issues are discussed.
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paper_title: Wildlife Poaching: Africa's Surging Trafficking Threat

paper_content:

Abstract : A booming black market trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars is fueling corruption in Africa s ports, customs offices, and security forces as well as providing new revenues for insurgent groups and criminal networks across the continent. Rather than narcotics, small arms, or other commonly trafficked goods, however, it is recordbreaking numbers of poached elephants and rhinoceroses that are driving this cycle of exploitation and instability. Poaching is not a new problem in Africa. Its dramatic acceleration since the late 2000s, however, has significantly altered its implications. By some estimates, the number of African elephants killed annually since 2007 has more than doubled to over 30,000.1 The trend crossed a chilling threshold in 2010 as the rate of killings surpassed that at which elephants breed, indicating that significant net population declines have begun. Rhino poaching has also skyrocketed. Illegal killings in southern Africa from 2000 to 2007 were rare, frequently fewer than 10 a year. An explosion in poaching rates commenced in 2008. By 2013, 1,004 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone. Soaring global prices for ivory and rhino horn are driving this poaching frenzy. In 2003, high-quality ivory sold for roughly $200 per kilogram. The same amount could fetch $2,500-$3,000 on the black market in 2013. The escalation in prices for rhino horn has been even more dramatic. Whereas a kilogram of rhino horn cost around $800 in the 1990s, it is now more valuable than gold. Some reports pegged the price of rhino horn in 2013 at $65,000 per kilogram. Thus, the horns from the 1,004 rhinos killed in South Africa may be worth $440 million. Such inflated prices, which exceed the value of cocaine and heroin in some countries, are overwhelming an already endangered species. The trend has even prompted a crime spree at some museums and auction houses with exhibits containing ivory or horn.
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paper_title: Phylogenetic and Transcriptomic Analysis of Chemosensory Receptors in a Pair of Divergent Ant Species Reveals Sex-Specific Signatures of Odor Coding

paper_content:

Ants are a highly successful family of insects that thrive in a variety of habitats across the world. Perhaps their best-known features are complex social organization and strict division of labor, separating reproduction from the day-to-day maintenance and care of the colony, as well as strict discrimination against foreign individuals. Since these social characteristics in ants are thought to be mediated by semiochemicals, a thorough analysis of these signals, and the receptors that detect them, is critical in revealing mechanisms that lead to stereotypic behaviors. To address these questions, we have defined and characterized the major chemoreceptor families in a pair of behaviorally and evolutionarily distinct ant species, Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator. Through comprehensive re-annotation, we show that these ant species harbor some of the largest yet known repertoires of odorant receptors (Ors) among insects, as well as a more modest number of gustatory receptors (Grs) and variant ionotropic glutamate receptors (Irs). Our phylogenetic analyses further demonstrate remarkably rapid gains and losses of ant Ors, while Grs and Irs have also experienced birth-and-death evolution to different degrees. In addition, comparisons of antennal transcriptomes between sexes identify many chemoreceptors that are differentially expressed between males and females and between species. We have also revealed an agonist for a worker-enriched OR from C. floridanus, representing the first case of a heterologously characterized ant tuning Or. Collectively, our analysis reveals a large number of ant chemoreceptors exhibiting patterns of differential expression and evolution consistent with sex/species-specific functions. These differentially expressed genes are likely associated with sex-based differences, as well as the radically different social lifestyles observed between C. floridanus and H. saltator, and thus are targets for further functional characterization. Our findings represent an important advance toward understanding the molecular basis of social interactions and the differential chemical ecologies among ant species.
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paper_title: A Survey on Anti-Poaching Strategies

paper_content:

South Africa holds the largest number of the world’s rhinoceros population. Over the years this species has suffered so ::: much at the hands of poachers. Based on statistics at least two rhinos are lost to poaching each day. With this rate of poaching activities, ::: Africa’s rhino could slide over the blink, into extinction. In this paper we therefore review the various anti-poaching strategies that have ::: been implemented over time bringing to light their shortcomings.
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paper_title: Lightweight GPS-Tags, One Giant Leap for Wildlife Tracking? An Assessment Approach

paper_content:

Recent technological improvements have made possible the development of lightweight GPS-tagging devices suitable to track medium-to-small sized animals. However, current inferences concerning GPS performance are based on heavier designs, suitable only for large mammals. Lightweight GPS-units are deployed close to the ground, on species selecting micro-topographical features and with different behavioural patterns in comparison to larger mammal species. We assessed the effects of vegetation, topography, motion, and behaviour on the fix success rate for lightweight GPS-collar across a range of natural environments, and at the scale of perception of feral cats (Felis catus). Units deployed at 20 cm above the ground in sites of varied vegetation and topography showed that trees (native forest) and shrub cover had the largest influence on fix success rate (89% on average); whereas tree cover, sky availability, number of satellites and horizontal dilution of position (HDOP) were the main variables affecting location error (±39.5 m and ±27.6 m before and after filtering outlier fixes). Tests on HDOP or number of satellites-based screening methods to remove inaccurate locations achieved only a small reduction of error and discarded many accurate locations. Mobility tests were used to simulate cats' motion, revealing a slightly lower performance as compared to the fixed sites. GPS-collars deployed on 43 cats showed no difference in fix success rate by sex or season. Overall, fix success rate and location error values were within the range of previous tests carried out with collars designed for larger species. Lightweight GPS-tags are a suitable method to track medium to small size species, hence increasing the range of opportunities for spatial ecology research. However, the effects of vegetation, topography and behaviour on location error and fix success rate need to be evaluated prior to deployment, for the particular study species and their habitats.
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paper_title: Animals as Mobile Biological Sensors for Forest Fire Detection

paper_content:

This paper proposes a mobile biological sensor system that can assist in earlydetection of forest fires one of the most dreaded natural disasters on the earth. The main ideapresented in this paper is to utilize animals with sensors as Mobile Biological Sensors(MBS). The devices used in this system are animals which are native animals living inforests, sensors (thermo and radiation sensors with GPS features) that measure thetemperature and transmit the location of the MBS, access points for wireless communicationand a central computer system which classifies of animal actions. The system offers twodifferent methods, firstly: access points continuously receive data about animals’ locationusing GPS at certain time intervals and the gathered data is then classified and checked tosee if there is a sudden movement (panic) of the animal groups: this method is called animalbehavior classification (ABC). The second method can be defined as thermal detection(TD): the access points get the temperature values from the MBS devices and send the datato a central computer to check for instant changes in the temperatures. This system may beused for many purposes other than fire detection, namely animal tracking, poachingprevention and detecting instantaneous animal death.
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paper_title: African Elephants Respond to Distant Playbacks of Low-Frequency Conspecific Calls

paper_content:

We conducted 58 playback experiments with free-ranging African elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia, to estimate the distance over which some of their low-frequency calls are audible to other elephants. We broadcast pre-recorded elephant calls to elephants that were 1.2 and 2.0 km from the speaker while making simultaneous video and audio recordings of their behavior. In order to reduce the risk of habituation, we used a variety of call types as stimuli. Elephants responded to playbacks at both 1.2 and 2.0 km, with a full response consisting of the elephant vocalizing, lifting and spreading its ears, remaining motionless in this position (‘freezing’), moving the head from side to side (‘scanning’) and, in the case of males responding to female estrous calls, orienting to and finally walking 1 km or more towards the loudspeaker. We analyzed our data quantitatively for three of these responses. The occurrence of each behavior increased substantially immediately after playbacks. Owing to limitations of the loudspeaker, we were only able to broadcast calls at half the sound pressure level (i.e. −6dB) of the strongest calls we have recorded. Since sound at the frequencies of these calls is predicted to suffer from little, if any, attenuation in excess of that caused by spherical spreading, we estimate these calls to be audible to elephants at least 4 km from the source (twice the distance over which we documented responses). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the very low-frequency calls of elephants function in communication between individuals and groups of elephants separated by distances of several kilometers.
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paper_title: Real‐time anti‐poaching tags could help prevent imminent species extinctions

paper_content:

This research was funder by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council - Grant Number: BB/G023913/2.
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paper_title: Intelligent fence intrusion detection system: detection of intentional fence breaching and recognition of fence climbing

paper_content:

Perimeter fencing is widely used to isolate and protect public and private places such as airports, military bases, power stations and construction zones against unauthorized accesses. Fence structures merely prevent a percentage of intrusions or postpone them. A higher level of security is needed to monitor and investigate activities on or around the fences. The Fence Intrusion Detection System (FIDS) is one of Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS) focusing on the fence intrusions. In general, there is no system practically available to classify suspicious activities; whether the activity was due to the strong wind turbulent or climbing of a person on the fence.
---
paper_title: ANTS: An Evolvable Network of Tiny Sensors

paper_content:

As a promising technology that enables ubiquitous computing and leads IT industries of next generation, sensor networks (SN) are foreseen to expand and populate the globe in such a way as the present Internet does. In this scenario, new challenges appear with such massive deployment, as the constant interaction of nodes and networks will transform them in dynamic entities that will need to evolve with their environment. In this paper, we discuss the future of sensor networks defining the concept of evolvability and its application. We also describe ANTS, a complete new architecture for wireless sensor networks, as our implementation to solve the challenges imposed by this evolvable future.
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paper_title: The development of a methodology for the evaluation of Wide Area Detection Systems (WADS)

paper_content:

The UK Home Office Centre for Applied Science & Technology (CAST)1, in partnership with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), has been developing a suite of standards for the testing of Perimeter Intruder Detection Systems (PIDS). This paper describes the development of the fifth standard in the suite, which is a methodology for the evaluation of a category of PIDS known as Wide Area Detection Systems (WADS). WADS are radically different to the PIDS covered by standards to date. Conventional PIDS have an essentially linear detection zone; whereas WADS provide surveillance over an extensive area, rather than along a line. Their range tends to be substantially greater than that of other PIDS; and system functionality is more sophisticated. In practice a WADS may be deployed to protect a large area, including a range of topographical features and obstacles (such as buildings). This complicates meaningful evaluation of products on a comparative basis, and makes setting performance criteria non-trivial compared to conventional PIDS. To address this, it is proposed that performance evaluations are carried out over as clear and benign an area as possible. Within this clear area evaluation, additional performance criteria not usually associated with linear PIDS will be assessed, such as maximum / minimum detection range, detection consistency, plot accuracy and the ability to “mask-out” areas within the detection envelope. In addition, to take account of real-world operational factors, such as undulating terrain, vegetation and man-made obstacles; time-to-alarm; and camera cueing, systems will also be assessed over a cluttered test area. However, relative performance in such an environment will be assessed on an indicative basis only, as it is not practicable to apply pure performance indicators in this case. In summary, it is proposed that rigorous quantitative assessment of performance will be carried out over a clear area of ground. This will be supplemented by indicative comparison of performance over a cluttered test area to demonstrate system behaviour in a more realistic setting, and to enable more sophisticated aspects of functionality to be assessed. This dual-faceted evaluation will support a guidance-led approach to the selection and use of WADS by UK Government and Critical National Infrastructure end users.
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paper_title: Cost effective security system integration

paper_content:

In earlier papers Senstar-Stellar outlined an integrated system of security devices that included control, communications and assessment capabilities. This paper reports on this new generation of systems, which features a cost-effective, easily scalable system platform that is applicable from small standalone security installations to larger networked systems. The main elements of this new system include: the integration of a wide variety of distributed sensor and device inputs and outputs; a redundant network with a fast and predictable response time; a multi-station operator control and display system that uses a real-time operating system and provides multiple interface device and language support; a centralized setup and maintenance system; and integrated assessment that provides sensory feedback. This paper outlines the system elements, including the new smart sensor components, illustrated by sample configurations that provide robust and economical security solutions for both small and large site applications.
---
paper_title: Design of a fence surveillance system based on wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a real application system based on wireless sensor network (WSN) for fence surveillance which is implemented on our development platform for WSN, called ANTS (An evolvable Network of Tiny Sensors). Our system, called the WFS system, is expanded to connect and control a robot (UGV/UAV) and a camera sensor network for the purpose of fence surveillance. Two kinds of sensor nodes, ground nodes and fence nodes, are deployed and collaborative detection is performed and the result is reported to the base station (BS). The BS does not only give a control message to the camera to show the place where an event has occurred, but it also issue orders to the robots to extend the communication distance of the system, to approach and sense the object more precisely, or even to attack an enemy autonomously. This paper describes various techniques and know-how to fulfill a WSN-based integrated surveillance system. A new adaptive threshold algorithm to detect intruders is proposed and some sensing results in the real field of our system are shown. In conclusion, we show the high accuracy of the WFS system.
---
paper_title: Intrepid MicroPoint system - European fence experience

paper_content:

When Southwest Microwave introduced the Intrepid MicroPoint fence disturbance sensor at the 1994 Carnahan Conference, it was primarily directed at chain link fencing. While the vast majority of fencing in North America is of the chain link variety this is certainly not true in Europe where a plethora of fence types are in use. Steel Palisade fencing, the most common type of fence installed in the UK today, does not even exist in North America. Since the fence structure and fence fabric become an integral part of the sensor when a fence disturbance cable is applied it is not surprising that Southwest Microwave has gone through a learning curve as MicroPoint is tested and applied to European fences. This paper describes some of the lessons learned over the past 8 years. In describing the effects of the fence type on the MicroPoint system, one must naturally consider the threat, as this too has a profound effect on where the cable should be located on the fence structure and also determines how the sensor should be tested. While new installation techniques and set up procedures have evolved based on the European experience, the basic MicroPoint TDR type of signal processing has proven to be very robust. The ability to not only detect the presence of an intruder but to accurately locate the intruder along the length of the cable has been proven to provide a number of significant benefits. As a result, Southwest Microwave has an office in the UK and the Intrepid MicroPoint System is now being used in at least 8 European countries.
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paper_title: Sensitivity variations in linear microphonic cables

paper_content:

Linear microphonic cables are used as the sensor for many Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems (PIDS). These cables transform vibrational energy into electrical energy which is then analysed to detect an intrusion attempt. Usually the cables are attached to a fence to sense the vibrations generated by cutting through or climbing over the fence fabric. This paper will not refer to the application where microphonic cables are buried in the ground. It is important that the response from microphonic cables is uniform. Manufacturers of cables often stress the linearity of response of their cables (in terms of variation along the cable's length.) Any areas of above-average sensitivity will lead to a propensity to false alarms. Conversely, any stretches which have below-average sensitivity will be more susceptible to being defeated. Although cable manufacturers say that their products are linear along their length, some anomalous, unexpected results are found once the cable is attached to a welded-mesh fence and the response is tested. If physical impacts are made repeatedly, in exactly the same place, using a "standard" impact device, then the electrical response generated seems to vary at that point by only around 5%. This implies that the standard impact device is reasonably repeatable. However, if the response is tested along a zone then the variation is much greater. This variation has always been seen, to some degree, when microphonic cables, of all types, are attached to fences. The variation is the subject of the paper. The variation seems to be relatively random, with only a little correlation in the response between adjacent fence bays. Although it seems unlikely that an attacker would be able to take advantage of the variation, it seems that it will still lead to difficulties in obtaining optimum performance from the system. If the variation could be eliminated then presumably some false alarms caused by the bays that are oversensitive could be eliminated, and some of the missed detections in the bays, that are under-sensitive could be captured.
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paper_title: VigilNet: An integrated sensor network system for energy-efficient surveillance

paper_content:

This article describes one of the major efforts in the sensor network community to build an integrated sensor network system for surveillance missions. The focus of this effort is to acquire and verify information about enemy capabilities and positions of hostile targets. Such missions often involve a high element of risk for human personnel and require a high degree of stealthiness. Hence, the ability to deploy unmanned surveillance missions, by using wireless sensor networks, is of great practical importance for the military. Because of the energy constraints of sensor devices, such systems necessitate an energy-aware design to ensure the longevity of surveillance missions. Solutions proposed recently for this type of system show promising results through simulations. However, the simplified assumptions they make about the system in the simulator often do not hold well in practice, and energy consumption is narrowly accounted for within a single protocol. In this article, we describe the design and implementation of a complete running system, called VigilNet, for energy-efficient surveillance. The VigilNet allows a group of cooperating sensor devices to detect and track the positions of moving vehicles in an energy-efficient and stealthy manner. We evaluate VigilNet middleware components and integrated system extensively on a network of 70 MICA2 motes. Our results show that our surveillance strategy is adaptable and achieves a significant extension of network lifetime. Finally, we share lessons learned in building such an integrated sensor system.
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paper_title: Microphony of coaxial cables

paper_content:

Microphony in the audio-frequency range has long been a problem in cables used for low-level signals. The paper reports and comments on fast pulses which may be generated when a braided cable is flexed. It is surmised that the problem may not be confined to cables.
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paper_title: Poacher detection at fence crossing

paper_content:

Poachers profit from the illegal trade of animal parts. Elephants and rhinoceros are often the target of poachers. In South Africa areas of private reserves agreed to drop fences bordering Kruger National Park. At same time they keep fences that don't boarder the park. Poachers are crossing these fence lines. This paper discusses a work in progress to develop sensors to detect poachers as they cross the fence line.
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paper_title: Deployment and evaluation of a fully applicable distributed event detection system in Wireless Sensor Networks

paper_content:

Versatility and real world applicability are key features of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In order to achieve these benefits we have to face the challenges of high practical relevance during application. We deploy and evaluate the concrete example of a fence monitoring task to reveal how our distributed event detection system is able to perform under real application conditions.The challenge is to bring both opposing aspects-high event detection accuracy and long service life-into one applicable ubiquitous system. If sensor nodes compose parts of events cooperatively, a comprehensive event assessment with low energy demands is possible. We propose a classifier based distributed event detection system consisting of two frameworks. The evaluation framework delivers a classification model and enables the theoretical evaluation of a given training set. The distributed event detection framework subsequently applies the classification model to assess, filter and classify events within the network. We evaluate our system by training and detecting events with our WSN composed of 49 nodes which are integrated in construction site fence elements.We compare four different data application scenarios with varying data processing concepts and varying network sizes to analyze the resulting communication load as well as the system lifetime. We compare the results of our evaluation framework with the results of our application to show that the evaluation framework reflects the real world deployment results in a credible way. We show the full applicability of our approach by comparing the resulting increased event detection accuracy against our previous work. Compared to other information fusion scenarios, our distributed event detection system reduces energy consumption beyond a communication distance of two hops which yields a prolonged lifetime of the network while additionally achieving an improved event detection accuracy.
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paper_title: BorderSense: Border patrol through advanced wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

The conventional border patrol systems suffer from intensive human involvement. Recently, unmanned border patrol systems employ high-tech devices, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, unattended ground sensors, and surveillance towers equipped with camera sensors. However, any single technique encounters inextricable problems, such as high false alarm rate and line-of-sight-constraints. There lacks a coherent system that coordinates various technologies to improve the system accuracy. In this paper, the concept of BorderSense, a hybrid wireless sensor network architecture for border patrol systems, is introduced. BorderSense utilizes the most advanced sensor network technologies, including the wireless multimedia sensor networks and the wireless underground sensor networks. The framework to deploy and operate BorderSense is developed. Based on the framework, research challenges and open research issues are discussed.
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paper_title: Standardised procedures for evaluating PIDS

paper_content:

The UK Home Office Scientific Development Branch, in partnership with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, has been developing a suite of standards for the testing of barrier-mounted, ground-based and free-standing perimeter intruder detection systems (PIDS). These standards allow different technologies to be compared on a performance basis. Progress on development of these standards and subsequent evaluations is discussed. Particular emphasis is given to the recent trial of four buried PIDS using a purpose-built sand-filled trench. This is believed to have been the first ground-based PIDS evaluation conducted on more than two technologies within the same trench. It is expected to yield results on the extent to which such systems can be co-located without this compromising their performance.
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paper_title: Energy-efficient surveillance system using wireless sensor networks

paper_content:

The focus of surveillance missions is to acquire and verify information about enemy capabilities and positions of hostile targets. Such missions often involve a high element of risk for human personnel and require a high degree of stealthiness. Hence, the ability to deploy unmanned surveillance missions, by using wireless sensor networks, is of great practical importance for the military. Because of the energy constraints of sensor devices, such systems necessitate an energy-aware design to ensure the longevity of surveillance missions. Solutions proposed recently for this type of system show promising results through simulations. However, the simplified assumptions they make about the system in the simulator often do not hold well in practice and energy consumption is narrowly accounted for within a single protocol. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a running system for energy-efficient surveillance. The system allows a group of cooperating sensor devices to detect and track the positions of moving vehicles in an energy-efficient and stealthy manner. We can trade off energy-awareness and surveillance performance by adaptively adjusting the sensitivity of the system. We evaluate the performance on a network of 70 MICA2 motes equipped with dual-axis magnetometers. Our results show that our surveillance strategy is adaptable and achieves a significant extension of network lifetime. Finally, we share lessons learned in building such a complete running system.
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paper_title: Fence Monitoring - Experimental Evaluation of a Use Case for Wireless Sensor Networks

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In-network data processing and event detection on resource-constrained devices are widely regarded as distinctive and novel features of wireless sensor networks. The vision is that through cooperation of many sensor nodes the accuracy of event detection can be greatly improved. On the practical side however, little real-world experience exists in how far these goals can be achieved. ::: ::: In this paper, we present the results of a small deployment of sensor nodes attached to a fence with the goal of collaboratively detecting and reporting security relevant incidents, such as a person climbing over the fence. Based on experimental data we discuss in detail the process of innetwork event detection both from the conceptual side and by evaluating the results obtained. Reusing the same traces in a simulated network, we also look into the impact of multi-hop event reporting.
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paper_title: Fiber optic fence sensor developments

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Many detection technologies have been employed for perimeter detection, to sensitize a barrier. These outdoor perimeter fence detection sensors must reliably detect intruders attempting to cut or climb the barrier, while ignoring the effects of environmental noise, including nearby activity. In recent conference proceedings, the new IntelliFIBER/spl trade/ fiber optic based product was introduced and compared with previous technologies. IntelliFIBER is designed to provide the advantages of a nonconductive "dielectric" cable sensor, e.g., resistance to electromagnetic interference and the ability to provide longer cable zones. It utilizes the proven processor of the Intelli-FLEX/spl trade/ triboelectric cable fence sensor, which provides relay or bidirectional networked serial communications and is compatible with its calibration module. IntelliFIBER also capitalizes on the Intelli-FLEX's adaptive detection algorithms that were developed through extensive field-testing, to provide exceptional immunity to environmental alarms while still detecting the skilled intruder.
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paper_title: ScatterWeb: A wireless sensornet platform for research and teaching

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This article presents ScatterWeb, a distributed, heterogeneous platform for the ad-hoc deployment of sensor networks offering hardware and open, fully documented software for research and teaching in embedded sensor networks. ScatterWeb consists of sensor nodes and several gateways connecting the sensor network to other wired or wireless networks. Already low-power by design, the sensor nodes offer additional energy conservation mechanisms and support energy efficient routing and applications. Even image capturing and transmission is possible with a minimum of energy. Together with auto-configuration and remote reprogramming techniques, these power saving mechanisms enable ScatterWeb nodes to survive many years in real-life scenarios without any in-place maintenance.
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paper_title: Performance investigation of real-time fiber optic perimeter intrusion detection systems using event classification

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The success of any perimeter intrusion detection system depends on three important performance parameters: the probability of detection (POD), the nuisance alarm rate (NAR), and the false alarm rate (FAR). The most fundamental parameter, POD, is normally related to a number of factors such as the event of interest, the sensitivity of the sensor, the installation quality of the system and the reliability of the sensing equipment. A critical performance parameter of any outdoor perimeter intrusion detection system is its capability of discriminating between intrusion and nuisance events without compromising its sensitivity or POD. In this paper, the performance criteria of a real-time fence-mounted distributed fiber-optic intrusion detection system are discussed. The use of event recognition and classification techniques to maintain high detection rates and minimize alarms caused by nuisance events is presented with a performance analysis for different event classification algorithms. Practical results for the detection of intrusion events and suppression of nuisances are also shown.
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paper_title: Wide-area Surveillance Sensor with Leaky Coaxial Cables

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This paper presents a microwave sensing system for wide-area surveillance that comprises two leaky coaxial cables, one for transmitting and the other for receiving. The sensor detects an intrusion by measuring the electromagnetic field level, which fluctuates when an intruder approaches and passes through the surveillance area. In this research, we have succeeded in specifying an intrusion point by applying the spread-spectrum technique. Results from a field test prove that the detection algorithm could detect the motion of an intruder without experiencing interference from shaking trees or rainfall.
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paper_title: The development of a methodology for the evaluation of Wide Area Detection Systems (WADS)

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The UK Home Office Centre for Applied Science & Technology (CAST)1, in partnership with the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), has been developing a suite of standards for the testing of Perimeter Intruder Detection Systems (PIDS). This paper describes the development of the fifth standard in the suite, which is a methodology for the evaluation of a category of PIDS known as Wide Area Detection Systems (WADS). WADS are radically different to the PIDS covered by standards to date. Conventional PIDS have an essentially linear detection zone; whereas WADS provide surveillance over an extensive area, rather than along a line. Their range tends to be substantially greater than that of other PIDS; and system functionality is more sophisticated. In practice a WADS may be deployed to protect a large area, including a range of topographical features and obstacles (such as buildings). This complicates meaningful evaluation of products on a comparative basis, and makes setting performance criteria non-trivial compared to conventional PIDS. To address this, it is proposed that performance evaluations are carried out over as clear and benign an area as possible. Within this clear area evaluation, additional performance criteria not usually associated with linear PIDS will be assessed, such as maximum / minimum detection range, detection consistency, plot accuracy and the ability to “mask-out” areas within the detection envelope. In addition, to take account of real-world operational factors, such as undulating terrain, vegetation and man-made obstacles; time-to-alarm; and camera cueing, systems will also be assessed over a cluttered test area. However, relative performance in such an environment will be assessed on an indicative basis only, as it is not practicable to apply pure performance indicators in this case. In summary, it is proposed that rigorous quantitative assessment of performance will be carried out over a clear area of ground. This will be supplemented by indicative comparison of performance over a cluttered test area to demonstrate system behaviour in a more realistic setting, and to enable more sophisticated aspects of functionality to be assessed. This dual-faceted evaluation will support a guidance-led approach to the selection and use of WADS by UK Government and Critical National Infrastructure end users.
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paper_title: A prediction-based clustering algorithm for tracking targets in quantized areas for wireless sensor networks

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Target tracking is an important application of sensor networks, particularly interesting for ecology applications related to wildlife monitoring. In this context, understanding the territorial occupation of animals is fundamental for understanding their habits. In this work, we propose the PRATIQUE--a prediction-based clustering algorithm for tracking targets considering a discrete sensor field divided into cells. This approach is based on two hierarchical levels: static clusters at the first level and dynamic clusters at the second level. This hybrid scheme reduces the cost of communication and ensures that all data generated by an event be delivered to a single node. We use Kalman, Alpha-Beta, or Particle Filters in order to predict the target's position. Prediction is used to prepare the set of nodes that will detect the next event, thereby reducing the message overhead during the tracking task. Results show that prediction errors are close to one cell.
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paper_title: Support-vector networks

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Thesupport-vector network is a new learning machine for two-group classification problems. The machine conceptually implements the following idea: input vectors are non-linearly mapped to a very high-dimension feature space. In this feature space a linear decision surface is constructed. Special properties of the decision surface ensures high generalization ability of the learning machine. The idea behind the support-vector network was previously implemented for the restricted case where the training data can be separated without errors. We here extend this result to non-separable training data.High generalization ability of support-vector networks utilizing polynomial input transformations is demonstrated. We also compare the performance of the support-vector network to various classical learning algorithms that all took part in a benchmark study of Optical Character Recognition.
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paper_title: Principal Component Analysis

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When large multivariate datasets are analyzed, it is often desirable to reduce their dimensionality. Principal component analysis is one technique for doing this. It replaces the p original variables by a smaller number, q, of derived variables, the principal components, which are linear combinations of the original variables. Often, it is possible to retain most of the variability in the original variables with q very much smaller than p. Despite its apparent simplicity, principal component analysis has a number of subtleties, and it has many uses and extensions. A number of choices associated with the technique are briefly discussed, namely, covariance or correlation, how many components, and different normalization constraints, as well as confusion with factor analysis. Various uses and extensions are outlined. ::: ::: ::: Keywords: ::: ::: dimension reduction; ::: factor analysis; ::: multivariate analysis; ::: variance maximization
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paper_title: Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients for Music Modeling

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We examine in some detail Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) the dominant features used for speech recognition and investigate their applicability to modeling music. In particular, we examine two of the main assumptions of the process of forming MFCCs: the use of the Mel frequency scale to model the spectra; and the use of the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) to decorrelate the Mel-spectral vectors. We examine the first assumption in the context of speech/music discrimination. Our results show that the use of the Mel scale for modeling music is at least not harmful for this problem, although further experimentation is needed to verify that this is the optimal scale in the general case. We investigate the second assumption by examining the basis vectors of the theoretically optimal transform to decorrelate music and speech spectral vectors. Our results demonstrate that the use of the DCT to decorrelate vectors is appropriate for both speech and music spectra. MFCCs for Music Analysis Of all the human generated sounds which influence our lives, speech and music are arguably the most prolific. Speech has received much focused attention and decades of research in this community have led to usable systems and convergence of the features used for speech analysis. In the music community however, although the field of synthesis is very mature, a dominant paradigm has yet to emerge to solve other problems such as music classification or transcription. Consequently, many representations for music have been proposed (e.g. (Martin1998), (Scheirer1997), (Blum1999)). In this paper, we examine some of the assumptions of Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) the dominant features used for speech recognition and examine whether these assumptions are valid for modeling music. MFCCs have been used by other authors to model music and audio sounds (e.g. (Blum1999)). These works however use cepstral features merely because they have been so successful for speech recognition without examining the assumptions made in great detail. MFCCs (e.g. see (Rabiner1993)) are short-term spectral features. They are calculated as follows (the steps and assumptions made are explained in more detail in the full paper): 1. Divide signal into frames. 2. For each frame, obtain the amplitude spectrum. 3. Take the logarithm. 4. Convert to Mel (a perceptually-based) spectrum. 5. Take the discrete cosine transform (DCT). We seek to determine whether this process is suitable for creating features to model music. We examine only steps 4 and 5 since, as explained in the full paper, the other steps are less controversial. Step 4 calculates the log amplitude spectrum on the so-called Mel scale. This transformation emphasizes lower frequencies which are perceptually more meaningful for speech. It is possible however that the Mel scale may not be optimal for music as there may be more information in say higher frequencies. Step 5 takes the DCT of the Mel spectra. For speech, this approximates principal components analysis (PCA) which decorrelates the components of the feature vectors. We investigate whether this transform is valid for music spectra. Mel vs Linear Spectral Modeling To investigate the effect of using the Mel scale, we examine the performance of a simple speech/music discriminator. We use around 3 hours of labeled data from a broadcast news show, divided into 2 hours of training data and 40 minutes of testing data. We convert the data to ‘Mel’ and ‘Linear’ cepstral features and train mixture of Gaussian classifiers for each class. We then classify each segment in the test data using these models. This process is described in more detail in the full paper. We find that for this speech/music classification problem, the results are (statistically) significantly better if Mel-based cepstral features rather than linear-based cepstral features are used. However, whether this is simply because the Mel scale models speech better or because it also models music better is not clear. At worst, we can conclude that using the Mel cepstrum to model music in this speech/music discrimination problem is not harmful. Further tests are needed to verify that the Mel cepstrum is appropriate for modeling music in the general case. Using the DCT to Approximate Principal Components Analysis We additionally investigate the effectiveness of using the DCT to decorrelate Mel spectral features. The mathematically correct way to decorrelate components is to use PCA (or equivalently the KL transform). This transform uses the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of the data to be modeled as basis vectors. By investigating how closely these vectors approximate cosine functions we can get a feel for how well the DCT approximates PCA. By inspecting the eigenvectors for the Mel log spectra for around 3 hours of speech and 4 hours of music we see that the DCT is an appropriate transform for decorrelating music (and speech) log spectra. Future Work Future work should focus on a more thorough examination the parameters used to generate MFCC features such as the sampling rate of the signal, the frequency scaling (Mel or otherwise) and the number of bins to use when smoothing. Also worthy of investigation is the windowing size and frame rate. Suggested Readings Blum, T, Keislar, D., Wheaton, J. and Wold, E., 1999, Method and article of manufacture for content-based analysis, storage, retrieval, and segmentation of audio information, U.S. Patent 5, 918, 223. Martin, K.. 1998, Toward automatic sound source recognition: identifying musical instruments, Proceedings NATO Computational Hearing Advanced Study Institute. Rabiner, L. and Juang, B., 1993, Fundamentals of Speech Recognition, Prentice-Hall. Scheirer, E. and Slaney, M., 1997, Construction and evaluation of a robust multifeature speech/music discriminator, Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing.
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paper_title: Detecting border intrusion using wireless sensor network and artificial neural network

paper_content:

Monitoring movement across national borders is a challenging problem due to several economic and technical issues. Due to the vast size, remoteness and other geographical confines of border regions, technical solutions are necessary to complement the limitations of manpower. In this paper we discuss our research in developing a system for detecting border intrusion activity by combining wireless sensor networks with artificial neural networks (ANNs). The key idea is to use ANN models to discover distinct patterns that describe an intrusion activity and use these patterns to train the ANN model which will then recognize intrusions and other abnormalities. We present a border intrusion detection system in which light and sound data from low-cost sensor motes spread out on the field is used to help ANNs make automated decisions and report intrusion activity. Our experimental results show that our border intrusion detection system can be used to monitor the borders without constant human supervision1.
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paper_title: Leaky Coaxial Cable Resource Protection Sensor Performance Analysis

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The performance of an RF intrusion detection system which uses a leaky coaxial cable sensor is analyzed. A simple cable sensor field model is assumed which gives good agreement between the computed response and observation. Expressions that describe the performance of several deployment configurations and receiver types are developed. The probability of detection and the zone of containment are computed and their uniformity is examined as a function of cable propagation constants.
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paper_title: African Elephants Respond to Distant Playbacks of Low-Frequency Conspecific Calls

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We conducted 58 playback experiments with free-ranging African elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia, to estimate the distance over which some of their low-frequency calls are audible to other elephants. We broadcast pre-recorded elephant calls to elephants that were 1.2 and 2.0 km from the speaker while making simultaneous video and audio recordings of their behavior. In order to reduce the risk of habituation, we used a variety of call types as stimuli. Elephants responded to playbacks at both 1.2 and 2.0 km, with a full response consisting of the elephant vocalizing, lifting and spreading its ears, remaining motionless in this position (‘freezing’), moving the head from side to side (‘scanning’) and, in the case of males responding to female estrous calls, orienting to and finally walking 1 km or more towards the loudspeaker. We analyzed our data quantitatively for three of these responses. The occurrence of each behavior increased substantially immediately after playbacks. Owing to limitations of the loudspeaker, we were only able to broadcast calls at half the sound pressure level (i.e. −6dB) of the strongest calls we have recorded. Since sound at the frequencies of these calls is predicted to suffer from little, if any, attenuation in excess of that caused by spherical spreading, we estimate these calls to be audible to elephants at least 4 km from the source (twice the distance over which we documented responses). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the very low-frequency calls of elephants function in communication between individuals and groups of elephants separated by distances of several kilometers.
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paper_title: Next generation of GUIDAR technology

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The next generation of guided radar (GUIDAR) is based on ultra wide band (UWB) radar signal processing. Just as spread spectrum technology has revolutionized the communications industry UWB is dramatically changing radar signal processing. These advanced signal processing techniques are adapted to leaky coaxial cable technology in the next generation GUIDAR to provide new features and enhanced performance. At the core of the new technology is an ultra high-speed digital correlator implemented in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Complementary orthogonal codes based on Golay codes are used to produce thumbtack correlation functions simultaneously in multiple range bins. The net result is "near continuous wave (CW)" performance (97% duty cycle) in forty to eighty 11.6-meter long-range bins with targets located within one meter along the length of cable. This is a dramatic improvement over the 3% duty cycle of the original GUIDAR and the typical 100 to 200 meter long zones of current CW leaky cable sensors. Orthogonal complementary codes are transmitted on each of two leaky coaxial cables. The responses from the parallel receive cables are fed to a direct digital receiver. The orthogonal nature of the code allows the composite coded pulse response to be de-multiplexed into the independent response for each of the two cables. This ultra-high speed correlation process involves the addition and subtraction of the sampled in-phase and quadrature-phase responses to the multiple range bin accumulators at 10 million samples per second. Synchronous sampling at twice the chip rate ensures that each target is observed in three adjacent sample bins. The phase and amplitude response in the three adjacent samples are combined to precisely pinpoint (within 1 meter) the locations of targets along the length of each of the two cables. The ability to precisely locate and track multiple simultaneous targets on each of two cables leads to numerous new features and performance benefits relative to existing leaky cable sensors. With a separate calibrated threshold for every meter of cable the sensor sensitivity is much more uniform and installation restrictions on burial depth, cable spacing, and medium homogeneity can be relaxed. Potential sources of nuisance alarms can easily be located and overcome. The pinpoint location can be used to provide better CCTV assessment, target capture for video motion sensors and more effective response to intrusions. Through the use of parallel cables the sensor can be used to detect the direction of crossing and to classify targets such as small animals, people, and vehicles. This patented next generation of GUIDAR technology represents a dramatic step forward from that which was introduced at the 1976 Carnahan Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, and the numerous CW leaky coaxial cable sensors that evolved from that work. This technology effectively addresses residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental requirements including those relating to homeland security, military operations, and prisons.
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paper_title: Pattern analysis for human intrusion detection with Leaky Coaxial Cables

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This paper presents a pattern analysis technique for human intrusion detection with a pair of Leaky Coaxial Cables (LCX). The LCXs are placed on the ground along the border of the site. When an object crosses the LCXs, the microwave radiated from the transmitting LCX is fluctuated. The sensor unit connecting the receiving LCX catches the fluctuating signals, then pattern analysis using the in-phase and the quadrature phase (I/Q) signals is utilized to recognize human intrusion. Our new approach uses two types of signals emitted from the LCXs, the radiation mode signal and the surface mode signal. Two types of I/Q patterns are obtained simultaneously. This double pattern analysis successfully reduces many of the false alarms compared with former approaches.
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paper_title: A line in the sand: A wireless sensor network for target detection, classification, and tracking

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Intrusion detection is a surveillance problem of practical import that is well suited to wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we study the application of sensor networks to the intrusion detection problem and the related problems of classifying and tracking targets. Our approach is based on a dense, distributed, wireless network of multi-modal resource-poor sensors combined into loosely coherent sensor arrays that perform in situ detection, estimation, compression, and exfiltration. We ground our study in the context of a security scenario called "A Line in the Sand" and accordingly define the target, system, environment, and fault models. Based on the performance requirements of the scenario and the sensing, communication, energy, and computation ability of the sensor network, we explore the design space of sensors, signal processing algorithms, communications, networking, and middleware services. We introduce the influence field, which can be estimated from a network of binary sensors, as the basis for a novel classifier. A contribution of our work is that we do not assume a reliable network; on the contrary, we quantitatively analyze the effects of network unreliability on application performance. Our work includes multiple experimental deployments of over 90 sensor nodes at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL, as well as other field experiments of comparable scale. Based on these experiences, we identify a set of key lessons and articulate a few of the challenges facing extreme scaling to tens or hundreds of thousands of sensor nodes.
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paper_title: Algorithm for Gunshot Detection Using Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC)

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Protection of forests and wildlife needs efficient, reliable, and real-time detection of events such as gunshots, wood cutting, distress call of animals, etc. In this paper, we propose a gunshot detection technique through acoustic signal pattern recognition utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC). In this work, MFCC is used to extract the features of gunshots from prerecorded analog sound files. Training of the system for gunshot detection has been done using a three layer Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) using extracted parameters of acoustic signals. For the creation of the database, 150 prerecorded gunshots have been used. From the database, 80 gunshot sound samples have been used for the training of the system. Testing has been done with the remaining 70 samples in the presence of noise. The algorithm has also been tested successfully using actual gunshot in noisy environment. Efficiency of algorithm is 95 % without noise and that decreases to 85 % in the presence of noise.
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paper_title: Intrusion detection and classification in forest area using inter-sensor communication signals and SVM

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Using wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for intrusion detection in critical area and border surveillance has been an active research topic in the last decade. In this paper, we present a novel approach for intrusion identification in the forest region. This approach is based on the ultra wideband (UWB) WSNs model. It shows the potential for exploiting off-the-shelf UWB transceivers or existing WSNs to detect the intrusion, since the proposed method only used the inter-sensor communication signals to identify the targets. For increasing the identification accuracy, we introduce a new combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) coefficients and channel characteristic parameters derived from received signal waveform, with support vector machine (SVM) based classifier, to classify the types of intrusion. By this method, barehanded intruder and armed intruder can be effectively distinguished. In addition, both static and moving targets are tested in the field experiment.
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paper_title: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems as a Rhinoceros Anti-Poaching Tool in Africa

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Over the last years there has been a massive increase in rhinoceros poaching incidents, with more than two individuals killed per day in South Africa in the first months of 2013. Immediate actions are needed to preserve current populations and the agents involved in their protection are demanding new technologies to increase their efficiency in the field. We assessed the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) to monitor for poaching activities. We performed 20 flights with 3 types of cameras: visual photo, HD video and thermal video, to test the ability of the systems to detect (a) rhinoceros, (b) people acting as poachers and (c) to do fence surveillance. The study area consisted of several large game farms in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The targets were better detected at the lowest altitudes, but to operate the plane safely and in a discreet way, altitudes between 100 and 180 m were the most convenient. Open areas facilitated target detection, while forest habitats complicated it. Detectability using visual cameras was higher at morning and midday, but the thermal camera provided the best images in the morning and at night. Considering not only the technical capabilities of the systems but also the poacherś modus operandi and the current control methods, we propose RPAS usage as a tool for surveillance of sensitive areas, for supporting field anti-poaching operations, as a deterrent tool for poachers and as a complementary method for rhinoceros ecology research. Here, we demonstrate that low cost RPAS can be useful for rhinoceros stakeholders for field control procedures. There are, however, important practical limitations that should be considered for their successful and realistic integration in the anti-poaching battle.
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paper_title: Saving rhinos with predictive analytics

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This article, the first entry in the new Predictive Analytics column, looks at the problem of animal poaching. The authors describe their Anti-Poaching Engine system, which builds on behavior models of both rhinos and poachers to protect as many animals as possible.
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paper_title: APE: A Data-Driven, Behavioral Model-Based Anti-Poaching Engine

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We consider the problem of protecting a set of animals such as rhinos and elephants in a game park using $D$ drones and $R$ ranger patrols (on the ground) with $R\geq D$ . Using two years of data about animal movements in a game park, we propose the probabilistic spatio-temporal graph (pSTG) model of animal movement behaviors and show how we can learn it from the movement data. Using 17 months of data about poacher behavior, we also learn the probability that a region in the game park will be targeted by poachers. We formalize the anti-poaching problem as that of finding a coordinated route for the drones and ranger patrols that maximize the expected number of animals that are protected, given these two models as input and show that it is NP-complete. Because of this, we fine tune classical local search and genetic algorithms to the case of anti-poaching by taking specific advantage of the nature of the anti-poaching problem and its objective function. We develop a measure of the quality of an algorithm to route the drones and ranger patrols called “improvement ratio.” We develop a dynamic programming based $\mathsf{APE\_Coord\_Route}$ algorithm and show that it performs very well in practice, achieving an improvement ratio over 90%.
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paper_title: A Wildlife Monitoring System Based on Wireless Image Sensor Networks

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Survival and development of wildlife sustains the balance and stability of the entire ecosystem. Wildlife monitoring can provide lots of information such as wildlife species, quantity, habits, quality of life and habitat conditions, to help researchers grasp the status and dynamics of wildlife resources, and to provide basis for the effective protection, sustainable use, and scientific management of wildlife resources. Wildlife monitoring is the foundation of wildlife protection and management. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology has become the most popular technology in the field of information. With advance of the CMOS image sensor technology, wireless sensor networks combined with image sensors, namely Wireless Image Sensor Networks (WISN) technology, has emerged as an alternative in monitoring applications. Monitoring wildlife is one of its most promising applications. In this paper, system architecture of the wildlife monitoring system based on the wireless image sensor networks was presented to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional monitoring methods. Specifically, some key issues including design of wireless image sensor nodes and software process design have been studied and presented. A self-powered rotatable wireless infrared image sensor node based on ARM and an aggregation node designed for large amounts of data were developed. In addition, their corresponding software was designed. The proposed system is able to monitor wildlife accurately, automatically, and remotely in all-weather condition, which lays foundations for applications of wireless image sensor networks in wildlife monitoring. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
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paper_title: Lightweight GPS-Tags, One Giant Leap for Wildlife Tracking? An Assessment Approach

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Recent technological improvements have made possible the development of lightweight GPS-tagging devices suitable to track medium-to-small sized animals. However, current inferences concerning GPS performance are based on heavier designs, suitable only for large mammals. Lightweight GPS-units are deployed close to the ground, on species selecting micro-topographical features and with different behavioural patterns in comparison to larger mammal species. We assessed the effects of vegetation, topography, motion, and behaviour on the fix success rate for lightweight GPS-collar across a range of natural environments, and at the scale of perception of feral cats (Felis catus). Units deployed at 20 cm above the ground in sites of varied vegetation and topography showed that trees (native forest) and shrub cover had the largest influence on fix success rate (89% on average); whereas tree cover, sky availability, number of satellites and horizontal dilution of position (HDOP) were the main variables affecting location error (±39.5 m and ±27.6 m before and after filtering outlier fixes). Tests on HDOP or number of satellites-based screening methods to remove inaccurate locations achieved only a small reduction of error and discarded many accurate locations. Mobility tests were used to simulate cats' motion, revealing a slightly lower performance as compared to the fixed sites. GPS-collars deployed on 43 cats showed no difference in fix success rate by sex or season. Overall, fix success rate and location error values were within the range of previous tests carried out with collars designed for larger species. Lightweight GPS-tags are a suitable method to track medium to small size species, hence increasing the range of opportunities for spatial ecology research. However, the effects of vegetation, topography and behaviour on location error and fix success rate need to be evaluated prior to deployment, for the particular study species and their habitats.
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paper_title: Animals as Mobile Biological Sensors for Forest Fire Detection

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This paper proposes a mobile biological sensor system that can assist in earlydetection of forest fires one of the most dreaded natural disasters on the earth. The main ideapresented in this paper is to utilize animals with sensors as Mobile Biological Sensors(MBS). The devices used in this system are animals which are native animals living inforests, sensors (thermo and radiation sensors with GPS features) that measure thetemperature and transmit the location of the MBS, access points for wireless communicationand a central computer system which classifies of animal actions. The system offers twodifferent methods, firstly: access points continuously receive data about animals’ locationusing GPS at certain time intervals and the gathered data is then classified and checked tosee if there is a sudden movement (panic) of the animal groups: this method is called animalbehavior classification (ABC). The second method can be defined as thermal detection(TD): the access points get the temperature values from the MBS devices and send the datato a central computer to check for instant changes in the temperatures. This system may beused for many purposes other than fire detection, namely animal tracking, poachingprevention and detecting instantaneous animal death.
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paper_title: Real‐time anti‐poaching tags could help prevent imminent species extinctions

paper_content:

This research was funder by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council - Grant Number: BB/G023913/2.
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paper_title: Wireless sensor networks: a survey on recent developments and potential synergies

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Wireless sensor network (WSN) has emerged as one of the most promising technologies for the future. This has been enabled by advances in technology and availability of small, inexpensive, and smart sensors resulting in cost effective and easily deployable WSNs. However, researchers must address a variety of challenges to facilitate the widespread deployment of WSN technology in real-world domains. In this survey, we give an overview of wireless sensor networks and their application domains including the challenges that should be addressed in order to push the technology further. Then we review the recent technologies and testbeds for WSNs. Finally, we identify several open research issues that need to be investigated in future. ::: ::: Our survey is different from existing surveys in that we focus on recent developments in wireless sensor network technologies. We review the leading research projects, standards and technologies, and platforms. Moreover, we highlight a recent phenomenon in WSN research that is to explore synergy between sensor networks and other technologies and explain how this can help sensor networks achieve their full potential. This paper intends to help new researchers entering the domain of WSNs by providing a comprehensive survey on recent developments.
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paper_title: Symbiotic Sensing for Energy-Intensive Tasks in Large-Scale Mobile Sensing Applications

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Energy consumption is a critical performance and user experience metric when developing mobile sensing applications, especially with the significantly growing number of sensing applications in recent years. As proposed a decade ago when mobile applications were still not popular and most mobile operating systems were single-tasking, conventional sensing paradigms such as opportunistic sensing and participatory sensing do not explore the relationship among concurrent applications for energy-intensive tasks. In this paper, inspired by social relationships among living creatures in nature, we propose a symbiotic sensing paradigm that can conserve energy, while maintaining equivalent performance to existing paradigms. The key idea is that sensing applications should cooperatively perform common tasks to avoid acquiring the same resources multiple times. By doing so, this sensing paradigm executes sensing tasks with very little extra resource consumption and, consequently, extends battery life. To evaluate and compare the symbiotic sensing paradigm with the existing ones, we develop mathematical models in terms of the completion probability and estimated energy consumption. The quantitative evaluation results using various parameters obtained from real datasets indicate that symbiotic sensing performs better than opportunistic sensing and participatory sensing in large-scale sensing applications, such as road condition monitoring, air pollution monitoring, and city noise monitoring.
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paper_title: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems as a Rhinoceros Anti-Poaching Tool in Africa

paper_content:

Over the last years there has been a massive increase in rhinoceros poaching incidents, with more than two individuals killed per day in South Africa in the first months of 2013. Immediate actions are needed to preserve current populations and the agents involved in their protection are demanding new technologies to increase their efficiency in the field. We assessed the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) to monitor for poaching activities. We performed 20 flights with 3 types of cameras: visual photo, HD video and thermal video, to test the ability of the systems to detect (a) rhinoceros, (b) people acting as poachers and (c) to do fence surveillance. The study area consisted of several large game farms in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The targets were better detected at the lowest altitudes, but to operate the plane safely and in a discreet way, altitudes between 100 and 180 m were the most convenient. Open areas facilitated target detection, while forest habitats complicated it. Detectability using visual cameras was higher at morning and midday, but the thermal camera provided the best images in the morning and at night. Considering not only the technical capabilities of the systems but also the poacherś modus operandi and the current control methods, we propose RPAS usage as a tool for surveillance of sensitive areas, for supporting field anti-poaching operations, as a deterrent tool for poachers and as a complementary method for rhinoceros ecology research. Here, we demonstrate that low cost RPAS can be useful for rhinoceros stakeholders for field control procedures. There are, however, important practical limitations that should be considered for their successful and realistic integration in the anti-poaching battle.
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paper_title: Saving rhinos with predictive analytics

paper_content:

This article, the first entry in the new Predictive Analytics column, looks at the problem of animal poaching. The authors describe their Anti-Poaching Engine system, which builds on behavior models of both rhinos and poachers to protect as many animals as possible.
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paper_title: APE: A Data-Driven, Behavioral Model-Based Anti-Poaching Engine

paper_content:

We consider the problem of protecting a set of animals such as rhinos and elephants in a game park using $D$ drones and $R$ ranger patrols (on the ground) with $R\geq D$ . Using two years of data about animal movements in a game park, we propose the probabilistic spatio-temporal graph (pSTG) model of animal movement behaviors and show how we can learn it from the movement data. Using 17 months of data about poacher behavior, we also learn the probability that a region in the game park will be targeted by poachers. We formalize the anti-poaching problem as that of finding a coordinated route for the drones and ranger patrols that maximize the expected number of animals that are protected, given these two models as input and show that it is NP-complete. Because of this, we fine tune classical local search and genetic algorithms to the case of anti-poaching by taking specific advantage of the nature of the anti-poaching problem and its objective function. We develop a measure of the quality of an algorithm to route the drones and ranger patrols called “improvement ratio.” We develop a dynamic programming based $\mathsf{APE\_Coord\_Route}$ algorithm and show that it performs very well in practice, achieving an improvement ratio over 90%.
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paper_title: A Wildlife Monitoring System Based on Wireless Image Sensor Networks

paper_content:

Survival and development of wildlife sustains the balance and stability of the entire ecosystem. Wildlife monitoring can provide lots of information such as wildlife species, quantity, habits, quality of life and habitat conditions, to help researchers grasp the status and dynamics of wildlife resources, and to provide basis for the effective protection, sustainable use, and scientific management of wildlife resources. Wildlife monitoring is the foundation of wildlife protection and management. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology has become the most popular technology in the field of information. With advance of the CMOS image sensor technology, wireless sensor networks combined with image sensors, namely Wireless Image Sensor Networks (WISN) technology, has emerged as an alternative in monitoring applications. Monitoring wildlife is one of its most promising applications. In this paper, system architecture of the wildlife monitoring system based on the wireless image sensor networks was presented to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional monitoring methods. Specifically, some key issues including design of wireless image sensor nodes and software process design have been studied and presented. A self-powered rotatable wireless infrared image sensor node based on ARM and an aggregation node designed for large amounts of data were developed. In addition, their corresponding software was designed. The proposed system is able to monitor wildlife accurately, automatically, and remotely in all-weather condition, which lays foundations for applications of wireless image sensor networks in wildlife monitoring. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
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paper_title: Saving rhinos with predictive analytics

paper_content:

This article, the first entry in the new Predictive Analytics column, looks at the problem of animal poaching. The authors describe their Anti-Poaching Engine system, which builds on behavior models of both rhinos and poachers to protect as many animals as possible.
---
paper_title: APE: A Data-Driven, Behavioral Model-Based Anti-Poaching Engine

paper_content:

We consider the problem of protecting a set of animals such as rhinos and elephants in a game park using $D$ drones and $R$ ranger patrols (on the ground) with $R\geq D$ . Using two years of data about animal movements in a game park, we propose the probabilistic spatio-temporal graph (pSTG) model of animal movement behaviors and show how we can learn it from the movement data. Using 17 months of data about poacher behavior, we also learn the probability that a region in the game park will be targeted by poachers. We formalize the anti-poaching problem as that of finding a coordinated route for the drones and ranger patrols that maximize the expected number of animals that are protected, given these two models as input and show that it is NP-complete. Because of this, we fine tune classical local search and genetic algorithms to the case of anti-poaching by taking specific advantage of the nature of the anti-poaching problem and its objective function. We develop a measure of the quality of an algorithm to route the drones and ranger patrols called “improvement ratio.” We develop a dynamic programming based $\mathsf{APE\_Coord\_Route}$ algorithm and show that it performs very well in practice, achieving an improvement ratio over 90%.
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paper_title: Fostering adoption of conservation technologies: a case study with wildlife law enforcement rangers

paper_content:

New technologies can aid the success of conservation outcomes. Technology alone will not however guarantee conservation success; this hinges on user adoption. Hence, there is a need to understand users’ adoption decisions and how to account for these to streamline the introduction of new technologies. Wildlife law enforcement rangers constitute a key end-user group for conservation technologies, and although some studies have focused on ranger experiences, and on the impacts of policing technologies on crime rates, few have addressed technology adoption among law enforcement personnel, and none among rangers. To address this gap we conducted a case study focused on a new technology called the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS), which was developed to deter poaching by improving the deployment of wildlife law enforcement ranger foot patrols. We evaluated the impacts of an educational programme on the willingness of Indonesia-based rangers to adopt the tool. Following the programme, rangers reported high levels of willingness to adopt PAWS. Furthermore, the more engaged rangers were in the programme, the more useful and easy to use they perceived PAWS to be, and the stronger their adoption intentions. In contrast, rangers who were more resistant to technology from the outset were less engaged in the programme, highlighting the importance of identifying and addressing sources of resistance. Overall, the findings of this case study stress the significance of accounting for and educating end users in disseminating conservation technologies, reinforcing the importance of accounting for human dimensions of conservation.
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paper_title: PAWS — A Deployed Game-Theoretic Application to Combat Poaching

paper_content:

Poaching is considered a major driver for the population drop of key species such as tigers, elephants, and rhinos, which can be detrimental to whole ecosystems. While conducting foot patrols is the most commonly used approach in many countries to prevent poaching, such patrols often do not make the best use of the limited patrolling resources.
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paper_title: Cloudy with a Chance of Poaching: Adversary Behavior Modeling and Forecasting with Real-World Poaching Data

paper_content:

Wildlife conservation organizations task rangers to deter and capture wildlife poachers. Since rangers are responsible for patrolling vast areas, adversary behavior modeling can help more effectively direct future patrols. In this innovative application track paper, we present an adversary behavior modeling system, INTERCEPT (INTERpretable Classification Ensemble to Protect Threatened species), and provide the most extensive evaluation in the AI literature of one of the largest poaching datasets from Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) in Uganda, comparing INTERCEPT with its competitors; we also present results from a month-long test of INTERCEPT in the field. We present three major contributions. First, we present a paradigm shift in modeling and forecasting wildlife poacher behavior. Some of the latest work in the AI literature (and in Conservation) has relied on models similar to the Quantal Response model from Behavioral Game Theory for poacher behavior prediction. In contrast, INTERCEPT presents a behavior model based on an ensemble of decision trees (i) that more effectively predicts poacher attacks and (ii) that is more effectively interpretable and verifiable. We augment this model to account for spatial correlations and construct an ensemble of the best models, significantly improving performance. Second, we conduct an extensive evaluation on the QENP dataset, comparing 41 models in prediction performance over two years. Third, we present the results of deploying INTERCEPT for a one-month field test in QENP - a first for adversary behavior modeling applications in this domain. This field test has led to finding a poached elephant and more than a dozen snares (including a roll of elephant snares) before they were deployed, potentially saving the lives of multiple animals - including elephants.
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paper_title: Optimal patrol routes: interdicting and pursuing rhino poachers

paper_content:

AbstractInterdiction patrolling (also known as hot spots policing) is a proactive police operation that depends on good planning. And the pursuit of fleeing suspects is a challenging operation that all police forces engage in on a regular basis. We give software tools that improve the effectiveness of both. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our tools by applying them to the case of rhino poaching in wildlife reserves. An interdiction patrol pre-emptively seeks out poaching parties within a reserve. Upon picking up the trail of a poaching party, a pursuit team needs a pursuit strategy that optimizes their chances of an interception. Our interdiction patrol route tool identifies optimal interdiction patrol routes to walk. This tool is based on a Stackelberg game and represents different types of poachers and their utilities. These utilities are updated (learned) each time new information on poaching party routes is added to the database. Our second tool provides a real-time sequence of team member moves t...
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paper_title: Predicting poaching for wildlife Protection

paper_content:

Wildlife species such as tigers and elephants are under the threat of poaching. To combat poaching, conservation agencies (“defenders”) need to 1) anticipate where the poachers are likely to poach and 2) plan effective patrols. We propose an anti-poaching tool CAPTURE (Comprehensive Anti-Poaching tool with Temporal and observation Uncertainty REasoning), which helps the defenders achieve both goals. CAPTURE builds a novel hierarchical model for poacher-patroller interaction. It considers the patroller's imperfect detection of signs of poaching, the complex temporal dependencies in the poacher's behaviors, and the defender's lack of knowledge of the number of poachers. Further, CAPTURE uses a new game-theoretic algorithm to compute the optimal patrolling strategies and plan effective patrols. This paper investigates the computational challenges that CAPTURE faces. First, we present a detailed analysis of parameter separation and cell abstraction, two novel approaches used by CAPTURE to efficiently learn the parameters in the hierarchical model. Second, we propose two heuristics—piecewise linear approximation and greedy planning—to speed up the computation of the optimal patrolling strategies. In this paper, we discuss the lessons learned from using CAPTURE to analyze real-world poaching data collected over 12 years in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
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paper_title: Dehorning African rhinos: a model of optimal frequency and profitability

paper_content:

Rhino dehorning is increasingly seen as a method of halting poaching in vulnerable black rhino populations. However, mathematical models suggest that, under current costs and prices, dehorning must be done annually if poaching is to be made unprofitable. As dehorning carries a risk of rhino mortality, it is unsustainable as an anti-poaching measure. A profit-maximizing manager will dehorn at less frequent, but still unsustainable, intervals. Sustainable dehorning produces near-optimal profits but will not deter poachers.
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Title: Poaching Detection Technologies—A Survey
Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: This section provides an overview of the poaching crisis including statistics and the need for detection technologies.

Section 2: Poaching
Description 2: This section discusses the historical and current state of poaching, including different types of poachers and their methods.

Section 3: Drivers of Demand
Description 3: This section elaborates on the factors driving the demand for wildlife products, particularly rhino horns and ivory.

Section 4: Drivers of Supply
Description 4: This section explains the elements that support the supply side of poaching activities.

Section 5: Methods
Description 5: This section outlines the methodology used for the survey, including literature review and categorization of anti-poaching approaches.

Section 6: Requirement of Poaching Detection Systems
Description 6: This section describes the essential requirements for effective anti-poaching detection systems.

Section 7: Existing Poaching Detection Technologies
Description 7: This section details the types of sensor technologies and their applications in poaching detection, categorized by perimeter, ground-based, aerial, and animal tagging technologies.

Section 8: Research Challenges and Future Directions
Description 8: This section discusses open research challenges and potential future directions for improving anti-poaching methods.

Section 9: Prevention of Poaching
Description 9: This section highlights various efforts aimed at preventing poaching, including diplomacy, law enforcement, negative reinforcement, substitution, and demand reduction.

Section 10: Conclusions
Description 10: This section summarizes the findings of the survey and emphasizes the need for effective anti-poaching solutions.