时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:2018年VOA慢速英语(六)月


英语课

Artificial Intelligence Used to Track World's Wildlife


Scientists have long struggled with how to measure the effects of climate change on wildlife. This is especially true for birds flying in and out of coastal 1 areas bordering the Arctic 2 Ocean.


In the past, researchers depended mainly on information gathered by satellite to follow the movement of birds and animals. But this method can be costly 3 and result in huge amounts of information, which can be difficult to process.


Now scientists are turning to another kind of technology to help them follow birds and other wildlife. Songbirds are especially difficult to study in the wild. They can fly across thousands of kilometers and their bodies are too small for electronic tracking devices.


A new report tells about a project in which researchers recorded songbirds and then put the sounds into a computer program to be studied. The researchers created machine learning algorithms with the ability to focus on bird calls while ignoring other noises. The algorithm helps improve the likelihood 4 of predicting the correct result. Similar machine learning methods have been used to recognize human speech.


Birds are known to make more singing and calling noises after arriving in areas where they plan to mate. Spring is short in extreme northern areas of the American state of Alaska. There, the birds must mate and have their young before winter.


The algorithm is designed to use the recordings 6 to estimate when the birds arrive in large groups to begin mating.


A lead researcher on the project is Ruth Oliver from Columbia University in New York. Oliver told VOA that she and others traveled to northern Alaska to put recording 5 equipment in four different places. The equipment was used to make four half-hour recordings each day. This produced more than 1,200 hours of audio, but not all of it was from birds.


“There's a lot of other noise in these recordings. Even in May, in northern Alaska, there's lots of wind, lots of rain, and all of that is confounding when you're listening to birds.”


Oliver adds that the machine learning method is a valuable tool to help identify and process the most useful parts of the recordings.


While some results were produced completely by machine, Oliver said human supervision 7 helped to improve the process. In both cases, the researchers reported the computer was correct in estimating when the birds arrived to their breeding grounds.


Oliver says the unsupervised machine learning method could be retooled 8 to use sounds to measure the movements of other wildlife. “This could allow us to track large-scale changes in how animals are responding to climate change,” she said.


Emily Jo Williams is a bird expert with the American Bird Conservancy, a non-profit group. She told VOA she agrees that machine learning can provide scientists with valuable information about how climate changes are affecting animal populations.


“We know from some research that some birds' ranges have actually changed, and they've moved in response to what we think is a warming climate."


In another study, researchers reported how machine learning methods can be used to identify, count and describe animals in the wild.


Currently 9, scientists depend mainly on cameras in the wild to keep track of animals. But just like the first study, the second also points out the problems of trying to deal with the large amounts of information gathered.


Processing this data can be costly and involve a lot of people.


Researchers created a machine learning system they say uses artificial intelligence or AI to identify, count, and describe the behaviors of 48 animal species 10. They said their method can correctly identify animals at a rate of 94 percent.


The scientists said results showed AI can be used as an effective way to gather “a wealth of information” on huge numbers of animals in the wild. They say the new methods will save time and costs, and can even operate in real-time.


I’m Bryan Lynn.


Words in This Story


track – v. to follow and find


algorithm – n. set of steps that are followed in order to solve a mathematical problem or to complete a computer process


focus – v. to direct attention at something


confounding – adj. surprising or confusing


respond – v. to react


allow – v. to permit or let


range – n. amount or number between a particular set of limits


artificial intelligence – n. ability of a machine to reproduce human behavior



1 coastal
adj.海岸的,沿海的,沿岸的
  • The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
  • This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。
2 Arctic
adj.北极的;n.北极
  • They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
  • The sort of animal lived in the Arctic Circle.这种动物生活在北极圈里。
3 costly
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的
  • It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
  • This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用,左不过贵了些。
4 likelihood
n.可能,可能性
  • We must try our best to reduce the likelihood of war.我们必须尽最大努力减少战争的可能性。
  • I don't think there is any likelihood of his agreeing to it.我认为不会有他同意那件事情的可能。
5 recording
n.录音,记录
  • How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间?
  • I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
6 recordings
n.记录( recording的名词复数 );录音;录像;唱片
  • a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
  • old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐
7 supervision
n.监督,管理
  • The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
  • The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。
8 retooled
v.(给…)更换工具, (给…)更换机械设备( retool的过去式和过去分词 );改组,革新
  • The company will be retooled after the incorporation. 合并之后的公司要进行重组。 来自辞典例句
  • Each time the product changes, the machines have to be retooled. 每次更换产品,就得重新装备机器。 来自辞典例句
9 currently
adv.通常地,普遍地,当前
  • Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
  • Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。
10 species
n.物种,种群
  • Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗?
  • This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。
学英语单词
a drone
ACL-60
Alexandrian Wiccan
alizarin blue-black nb
alpha paper
antilock
bandel
be in the front line
be incident upon
bilderback
blending bunker
bln
bringing you down
calcaneocavus
cam action reel
camouflage building
cAMP receptor protein
caribbean blue
cathe
chemers
chopsteak
CM copper
coleroa chaetomium
cppd
decision network
diergism
dignifying
dipped
electrode earth
error comparator
few-group model
filiality
foreign exchange turnover
forthwax
fractal dimension
frozen-heave force
fuel breather
gangway width
gas emanation
Gauss-Jordan elimination method
general pressure drop
generator cut out
ground return circuit
haugh unit
have the face to do something
incendiary fire
individual life policy
inspectingly
interstade
intransitivize
jakowski
jostled
Kaitumälven
knife cheek
late-onset desister trajectory
linguocentric
Lutembacher syndrome
madia-oil
manpowers
melanoderma cachecticorum
mourner
multi-way connector
mystic meg
non-rationality
non-trivial
nonterminal position
not care a chip
Nothofagidites
oil absorption of talc
oundy moulding
photopheresis
prayer stick
prepurchase customer service
real-time multicomputing
Recombinate
resting metabolism
robo-
rudimentum processus vaginalis
ruhh
safety drilling method
salganea taiwanensis
scalar impedence
separate bill of lading
service revenue
shaft-basis system
sodium expulsion
Soleymān Kalay
stentor steel
survival instinct
take a noble part
tank pressure gauge
telepathist
terra japonica
they-all
tunkus
under-glaze
underwater concreting
user effort
uterine cotyledons
utilization coefficient of strokes
webcasters
wine set