Having lions or hyenas roaming around near your home is a reality for many Kenyans living close to wildlife.

In many cases, especially during periods of drought, the conflict that results causes grief and loss as the animals attack livestock.

To secure community safety, livelihoods and prevent human-wildlife conflict, Vodafone is in the early stages of creating new technology that will help people and wildlife to coexist peacefully.

Using the Internet of Things (IoT), the solution will work 24/7 using a combination of solar power and rechargeable batteries.

Three to four cameras will search the entire circumference of a given area, which is illuminated with infra-red lights, to sense when an animal is approaching. Using a combination of deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and other computer vision algorithms, animals are detected and identified, triggering an appropriate deterrent such as flashing lights or a specific noise. Elephants, for example, are known to be deterred by the sound of a swarm of African bees.

At the same time, IoT connectivity is used to send SMS alerts to the local community, and wider alerts and reports via our cloud server. These alerts contain information including the time, location and species identified, as well as what deterrent was activated.

The AI runs on a Raspberry Pi and the entire system is housed in a robust and weatherproof enclosure.

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