Between 50,000 to 100,000 bees occupy a mini-apiary on the roof of the building. Besides honey, the bees provide a great deal of very useful test data. The beehives enable researchers to test all aspects of data analysis – sensors, data acquisition, data analysis and data visualization. An application like bee identification, bee detection and bee tracking could directly translate into tracking objects on the factory floor or tracking shipping containers.

The resulting data streams are used to test sensor techniques as well as analytical algorithms. For instance, the image from a camera directed at the hive’s entrance is useful in the development of an image detection system and counting objects based on video transmission. A lot of bees fly out of the hive at the same time, and the scientists try to find a method of counting them, taking into account their speed, small size and background. A large amount of quite exotic data allows the researchers to experiment.

Read how bees are making a breakthrough in big data

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Research with bees

Did you know...

...ABB’s Corporate Research Center in Krakow, Poland, uses bees raised on its roof to support the environment – and test computer algorithms?

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