UW–Madison researcher, Assistant Prof. Emily Bick, developed a method for identifying insect infestations, according to WisBusiness. The invention gives farmers a new tool to protect their crops and is being touted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation as a top licensing prospect in the food and agriculture sector.
Bick, a specialist in precision pest ecology for field and forage crops in the university’s Entomology Department, created a machine-learning algorithm that utilizes audio signals from microphones to find infestations; detection can even include bugs that bore into the plant’s structure, which are hard to identify without destroying the crops. It tracks vibrations in the plant rather than sound waves in the air and can distinguish between chewing sounds and natural or weather-related noises. Bick calls the tool the “insect eavesdropper.”
Bick and the research team continue to work on how to establish the density of insects within the plant, which can also inform farmers’ response to an infestation. More information about Bick’s work is available here.
