Animal Biometrics

Book excerpt: This book presents state-of-the-art methodologies and a comprehensive introduction to the recognition and representation of species and individual animals based on their physiological and phenotypic appearances, biometric characteristics, and morphological image patterns. It provides in-depth coverage of this emerging area, with an emphasis on the design and analysis techniques used in visual animal biometrics-based recognition systems. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to visual animal biometrics, addressing a range of recent advances and practices like sensing, feature extraction, feature selection and representation, matching, indexing of feature sets, and animal biometrics-based multimodal systems. It provides authoritative information on all the major concepts, as well as highly specific topics, e.g. the identification of cattle based on their muzzle point image pattern and face images to prevent false insurance claims, or the monitoring and registration of animals based on their biometric features. As such, the book provides a sound platform for understanding the Visual Animal Biometrics paradigm, a vital catalyst for researchers in the field, and a valuable guide for professionals. In addition, it can help both private and public organizations adapt and enhance their classical animal recognition systems.