Scientists identify individual zebras by “scanning” their stripes like a barcode. Princeton University and the University of Illinois created StripeSpotter, a software that converts digital photos of zebra’s flanks into a series of horizontal, black and white pixelated bands, creating a unique “StripeCode” for each animal. Each zebra has a unique configuration of stripes, which allows conservationists to keep track of zebra populations without physically tagging the animals.
On top of that, it’s simple to use. Ecologists in the field take pictures of the animals using an everyday digital camera. That image is uploaded to a Stripespotter database. The scientist highlights a portion of the photographed animal, such as its hindquarters, and the program analyzes the pixels in that portion and then assigns a “stripecode” to the animal. When additional images of zebras are uploaded to the database and the hindquarters highlighted, the Stripespotter program compares the stripecode with others in the system. If it finds a match, it provides feedback about why two images of an animal are similar.
Picture Credit : Google