Thermal Occlusion Synthesis (Tos): A Novel Data Synthesis Framework for Improved Poacher Spotting to Aide Wild Life Conservation

Poaching is one activity which has posed a great threat to Wild Animals. According to the World Wild Life organization, there has been a dramatic increase in the killing of Rhinos for their horn, Tigers for their skin and Elephants for their ivory tusks. Due to extreme poaching activity, all these above-mentioned animals have been categorized as endangered species as there are very few left in the jungle. Interventions to poaching have been successful but need accurate intelligence and are human-intensive and dangerous activities. Recent advances made in Computer Vision, Unmanned Ariel vehicles, and Artificial intelligence allows for assisting the said conservation efforts. With that goal in mind, we have come up with an AI solution that would solve or at least help in solving this problem and aid in wildlife Conservation. In this paper, we explore a solution based on a Thermal camera attached to a drone to detect humans and alert authorities’ personnel in the restricted zone in the forest and national parks. Drones can be put in randomized flight patterns, making them hard to circumvent and difficult to detect the presence of or destroy.