Footprint Recognition of Rodents and Insects

Abstract

In today s pest control operations large numbers of tracking tunnels are used to estimate the number of rodents present in the target area, providing a basis for planning the required amount of poison. The marks left in the tunnels have to be interpreted by trained experts. This article introduces two methods that make a step towards automating the process of recognizing footprints of rodents and insects. Furthermore two classification methods (Principal Component Analysis, a simple Na¨?ve Bayes classifier) are studied to distinguish the four examined insect species. Here, a combination of both classifiers proved superior to using just one method.