Our Way 1
3D HORSES TEXT SOFIA ZETTERMAN PHOTO SLU HORSES D
IMENSIONS – in new Menhammar stud farm is assisting with trotters in a pioneering AI 3D-scanning project, facilitated by SLU. The project, currently in its start-up phase, aims to develop an app that can determine the horse’s height, weight, and body condition just by taking a photo of the horse with a smartphone, making it easier to identify illnesses. 26 cameras take 260 pictures a second to complete the scan. S The images may be slightly blurry, but the results are perfectly clear. wedish University of Agricultural Studies has the only 3D scanner for horses in the world, and in 2022, it launched a project gathering images of horses to be processed by AI. To be scanned, the horses must be transported to SLU, since the scanner is not portable. The scanning takes place in a room with 26 cameras that take ten images per second and even though the actual scan takes only about ten minutes (depending on how cooperative the horse is), it also takes extra time to measure the height and do the body condition score. This makes the 3D scanning a time-consuming and logistical challenge. “Step one is to teach the computer to recognise the horse and how it’s built. We need to scan as many different horses as possible to teach the computer to recognise the shape of a horse in 3D using AI, to eventually be able to create a 3D picture of a horse from a 2D picture,” says Menhammar veterinarian and SLU research assistant Zala Zgank. SO FAR, 127 horses – including everything from ponies to trotting and cold-blooded horses – have been scanned. However, plenty more are still needed for it to be possible to recreate an accurate 3D image. Using the new technique, researchers hope to develop an app for veterinarians, enabling them to find out the horse’s weight, height, and body condition by simply taking a photo of the horse. 14 OUR WAY 1/2024