Over the next six months, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) and Extrasense Technology Incorporated will pilot AI-enhanced rodent monitoring cameras at BHA properties in Brighton and the South End.
“The goal is to evaluate whether improved trash receptacles and commercial-level service reduce rat activity at BHA sites,” said Inspectional Services Department (ISD) Director of Communications Lisa Timberlake. “The data collected from this pilot will help us understand if obtaining new receptacles and [services] helps decrease the rat populations at BHA locations. ”
The idea of using AI to combat rats may seem a tad dystopian, but the program is anything but mass surveillance – for humans at least. The hardware is a modified version of a commercially available trail camera, the Reolink Ranger Pro LTE AI-Enhanced, that filters out human activity and maps rodent behavior. Footage will be used to evaluate how new BHA trash receptacles contribute to rodent mitigation…