Swimmers in Australian tropical waters could soon be protected by high-tech crocodile-spotting drones equipped with artificial intelligence, able to peer through murky waters and spot hungry predators.
A member of The Ripper Group, an Australian drone services company, confirmed to Hack that a trial of the technology is underway in Far North Queensland, where technicians are teaching the drones to distinguish between crocs and tree trunks.
The Ripper Group already supplies shark-spotting drones for Australian beaches, as well as drones that look out for rips and swimmers in distress.
Spotting crocodiles, however, is much harder than sharks, according to the company's chief operations officer, Ben Trollope.
