Leopold ChenCity University researchers have developed a technology to identify "clucks for help" from chickens and distinguish those sounds from sounds of distress over physical discomfort, insufficient food and water or being attacked. Prior to the research, such identification and statistics relied on labor-intensive, time-consuming and inaccurate manual annotation, the researchers said. The system contains an algorithm that covers frequency ranges from 0Hz to 11,025Hz, allowing distress calls to be distinguished from natural sounds. "Our end goal is not just to count distress calls, but to create conditions in which the chickens can live with less distress." The research was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface and the researchers expect the technology to be deployed commercially within five years.

Source: The Standard July 11, 2022 23:53 UTC