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Handhelds Science Hardware

Cows Identified by Retinal Imaging 57

Posted by michael from the don't-blink dept.
wackoman2112 writes "According to this article, ranchers on western cattle ranches are keeping track of their cattle with the "OptiReader," a small handheld which takes retinal scans. They scan a cow's eye and record information in the database about the animal's color, weight, and genetic linage. Hmmm... This could be justification for a YRO for animals."
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Cows Identified by Retinal Imaging More

Cows Identified by Retinal Imaging

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  • cowbells (Score:4, Interesting)

    by trompete ( 651953 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @12:14AM (#6672768) Homepage Journal
    I guess that will be the end of the cowbells.
    Cowbells are pretty cool though. I spent some time in the Austrian Alps and met some farmers who could tell me which cow was nearby by the pitch of the bell.
    I suppose the next thing to come along will be RFID tags for cows.
    • No more cowbell? But it's the secret to music-producing success! [/walken]

    • Re:cowbells (Score:2, Insightful)

      by eibhear ( 307877 )
      Believe it or not, RFID (or something similar) was proposed for livestock agriculture some time ago. When I was in college in the early nineties, a classmate of mine worked on a project to develop a better polymer to encase a unique radio transmitter. The job of the material was to protect the transmitter from disgestion as it rested at the bottom of one of the cow's stomachs (for the city slickers among you, cows have four stomachs -- one for each food group). Each cow could then be uniquely identified. I

      • Farmers don't care about intrusive procedures (Score:4, Interesting)

        by DrSkwid ( 118965 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @05:23AM (#6673644) Journal
        I've worked on farms and the last thing farmers seem to care about is the short term pain (and long term in some cases) of their prisoners.

        Branding
        Ear tags
        De-beaking
        Artificial insemination
        Murder

        A was in a shed when a shearer cut off the nipple of one of the sheep. His reaction - pissed off because he had to stop shearing to "take care" of the poor animal. First he applied anaesthetic (well, he hit it on the forehead until it stopped struggling) and then kind of sewed up the hole and pushed it down the ramp into the outside pen.

        The fields are full of cows, ever wonder where all the bulls are?

        The fields are full of sheep, ever wonder where the rams are?

        Where are the chickens? Oh there's thousands of them crammed into that little shed, three to cage and they have to have their beaks cut off to stop them killing each other.

        The trouble with country folk is they've lost touch with nature.

        • What utter sh*t. I'm not sure what it more distressing, the post or the fact that it was modded as being informative.

          I'd reply in depth but it strike me that this is just trollbait.
          • witnessed with my own eyes

            you can't rebutt it because it's true

            I'm not trolling, it's my opinion.

            • You're basing your opinion on a limited amount of information.

              You also don't seem to understand the practicalities behind some farm practices (segreatating male and female animals for instance). Mostly, I am guessing, because you don't have a lot of experience outside what appears to a single incident.

              Most farmers don't follow the practices that you mention. For quite a wide number of reasons (including the practical economics of setting up a alrge factory farm operation) but I can tell you that, despite
              • no farmer I know does any sort of factory farming.

                I'm sure the millions of chickens de-beaked and stuck in battery farms will be pleased to hear that.

                I have been to many farms, in the UK and abroad.
                Every cow I have ever seen has a plastic tag in it's ear.

                Maybe it is a European thing. I've not visited US farms.

                I'm not deluded.

                segreatating male and female animals for instance

                Male calves are killed, females kept alive to breed and produce milk.
                Male pigs are killed for meat, females kept alive to breed
        • The trouble with country folk is they've lost touch with nature.

          No. The problem is that WE have lost touch with nature. We eat other living things(and other living things, although admittedly very rarely, eat us). It's called "the food chain". If you want to be a '5th level vegan' who doesn't eat anything that 'casts a shadow', be my fuckin' guest. I don't bother you about being a vegitarian, don't fucking bother me about having a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and (gasp) a glass of milk.

          Tha


          • huge industrial farms are disgusting

            Independent farmers here are a small minority. The land was seized and divided by the Normans in 1066 and has stayed pretty much the same since then.
            Most farmers are employees.

            Intensive farming impacts us all. Whether it be from wasteful use of water or putting pesticides and hormones and anti-biotics into your precious food chain.

            Voting with your wallet is one strategy for making changes and if you are really true to that then good for you and good for everyone else
        • I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but it's not possible to "murder" a non human.

          Some of the many conditions which animals are forced to endure are without question needlessly cruel. However, I'm not going to stop eating meat.

          When possible, I prefer to obtain Kosher or Halal foods because the animals are kept under better conditions.

          LK
    • RFID technology has been in use on cows for years. It was probably one of the first commercial applications. My cousin's dairy farm has used it for about 2 decades. When a cow comes up to the feeder, a sensor reads it's id from it's neck tag and the computer decides how much feed to give the cow. The more milk they give, the more feed they get.
    • Oh boy, it's getting to the point where we have more cowbells being used for music than on cows. Heck, I even have one on my drum set.

  • inventory control (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Naikrovek ( 667 ) <jjohnson&psg,com> on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @12:27AM (#6672818)
    inventory control is something to me that makes a lot of sense. people foamed at the mouth when RFID tags were to be put in clothes, but few realized that they're useless once they leave the store that owns the clothes. its just inventory control, to keep people from stealing said clothes.

    farmers are doing it for more than just inventory control though, they're using it to easily determine which genetic lines produce the best milk producers, the best meat, etc. this is a good thing, it *should* lower the prices of milk and beef a bit, and it should improve the overall quality the steak on your table.

    i'm all for this. technology for tracking isn't *all* bad.

  • Just out of curiosity... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by $exyNerdie ( 683214 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @12:43AM (#6672869) Homepage Journal

    Just out of curiosity.... do the retinal images of cows never change just the way human finger prints don't change from childhood to death ??
    • I've been identifying lots of things with retinal imaging for quite a long time, as far back as I can remember.

      I look at something, light projects an image on my retina, I go "hey! it's a cow"

      yeah I need coffee :P

  • YRO for animals? (Score:5, Funny)

    by frankjr ( 591955 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @12:48AM (#6672889) Journal
    I think these animals have a little more to be worried about than having their retinas scanned. I think they're worried about being eaten.

  • Brilliant plan there.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dr. Bent ( 533421 ) <ben.int@com> on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @12:53AM (#6672902) Homepage
    "This could be justification for a YRO for animals."

    Hmmmm. Yeah, that would be a great idea except for the fact that COWS CAN'T READ!

  • Cow Rights Online (Score:5, Funny)

    by patch-rustem ( 641321 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @03:11AM (#6673321) Homepage Journal
    IANAC (I am not a cow), but I would much prefer to have a laser shone in my eye than have tag [nodak.edu] slough off my ear.
    I'd also rather not be eaten.

    (How about a Your Cow Online Section? [google.co.uk] )

  • cross pollination (Score:2, Interesting)

    by faldore ( 221970 )
    One of many examples of the ways different areas of science can be useful to real people when you mix them. Here we have forensics + computer science + farming = innovation. Why can't more people think like this?
  • Interesting that this should trigger a YRO-like response,
    where cows have had to wear a unique ID printed/burned on a yellow eartag, one for each ear, for years already (at least in the Netherlands, but I've seem them in
    Germany as well).

    Doing identification by retinal scanning seems *much*
    more humane to me than identification by plastic yellow
    flaps shot through the ears. It'd take us back to the times
    when identification was mostly done based on the cow's
    hide patterns, but without the trickiness in identifyi

  • This won't replace the ear tags (Score:3, Insightful)

    by David Frankenstein ( 21337 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @09:39AM (#6675136)
    Even with this technology, ear tags will still be used some places to control parasites/pests. The real meat here (pun intended) is the connection to a secure central DB that can track the animals from ranch to market.
  • But think of the B to B marketing implications of this. Wiether we tag these animals on the ear, useing RFID tags, retinal images, or through radio isometric quantum anal tagging; we are in an age that is going to allow us to make huge leaps in the area of animal husbandry, tracking production, and one day we might even be able to have these primary identifiers make economic decisions for farmers. Cow 39 has stopped producing quota supplies of milk, send in the Slaughterbot 9000.

  • Computer cowboy (Score:4, Informative)

    by Chagatai ( 524580 ) on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @10:11AM (#6675513) Homepage
    I work for one of the largest beef and pork producers in America. We have a large number of feedlots and facilities (slaughterhouses) across the states. I can confirm that as of right now all we use for identification is the standard issue ear tags. We have been exploring the use of RFID for animals, but until the prices drop to the point where ear tags and RFID cost the same it doesn't make sense for us to alter our business plan and invest in a whole new set of materials, equipment, and training costs.

    While the retinal scanning does sound promising, that also only helps while the animal is alive. Plus, it requires a certain degree of "cooperation" with the cows. The tags are also more efficient for identifying members of a pen at a distance by tag color alone. Once they come into our facilites, too, retinal scanning does us no good as they get knocked and killed pretty quick. Unless you wanted to track the offal by retinal scans, that's about all it would be good for. You'd be surprised at the way in which our livestock is inventoried and moved around these plants; it is quite scientific, humane, and sterile.

  • Oops... (Score:3, Funny)

    by MoobY ( 207480 ) <`ten.snekeil' `ta' `ynohtna'> on Tuesday August 12, 2003 @12:01PM (#6676868) Homepage
    I read "rectal" instead of "retinal." That would've been pretty curious.
  • This could probably do a lot for the current problems with canadian beef and MadCow.

    The problems being that some countried (ie the US and Mexico) will not import live canadian cattele, since other countries fear it would in turn be exported to them.

    A central DB with retnal scans could effectivly track cattle movement from birth, to slaughter house, allowing for easier tracking of communitable diseases, and such. And in this case, to effectivly prevent (and prove), imported cattle from being exported.
  • <hologram salespitch, translated from Bovine>
    Good to see you in the slaughterhouse, Ms. Mirabelle! How're the calves doing? Perhaps you'd be interested in the latest cowbells from The Gap? Or perhaps some high quality hay from McDonalds for your last meal? After all, they serve McNuggets there, too!
    </salespitch>

    (Apologies if redundant because someone beat me to it - just mod it down. Don't waste time flaming)

  • Funny that a technology which is probably destined to be applied in the workplace (no more security cards/keys, just scan!) has first found a widespread use in CATTLE. Maybe the retinal scanners of tomorrow should be coined 'cattle scans'.

    "And all those other people out there who have no idea what's going on are the cattle. Mooo!"

  • "Sir, we can't kill this cow. It refuses to open its eyes, so we cannot ID it and update the database."
    "I was afraid this would happen some day. This might be the beginning of a revolution..."
  • ...I'm pretty sure I could identify a cow by forming an image of it on my retina, even if it tried to hide amongst chickens, or even sheep. If it's such a problem, couldn't ranchers just spray 'cow' in red paint on the sides of the beasts?

  • Did anyone else look at the title and think it said: "Cows Identified by Rectal Imaging"???

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