中國科技公司開發(fā)“豬臉識別”

A database of every pig’s face. Voice scans that detect hogs with a cough. Robots that dispense just the right amount of feed.
一個記錄了每一頭豬的面孔的數據庫?？梢园l(fā)現咳嗽豬只的聲音掃描?？梢跃_配發(fā)適量飼料的機器人。
This could be China’s pig farm of the future.
這可能就是中國的未來養(yǎng)豬場。
Chinese companies are pushing facial and voice recognition and other advanced technologies as ways to protect the country’s pigs. In this Year of the Pig, many Chinese hogs are dying from a deadly swine disease, threatening the country’s supply of pork, a staple of Chinese dinner tables.
中國企業(yè)正在推進面部和語音識別等先進技術，用來保護中國的生豬。今年是豬年，有許多豬死于一種致命豬瘟，威脅到中國的豬肉供應——這種肉類是中國人餐桌上的一個重要元素。
So China’s ebullient technology sector is applying the same techniques it has used to transform Chinese life — and, more darkly, that the Chinese government increasingly uses to spy on its own people — to make sure its pigs are in the pink of health.
所以，中國充滿活力的科技行業(yè)正在應用那些曾改變中國人生活的技術——這些技術還有更陰暗的用途，中國政府正越來越多地用它們來監(jiān)視自己的人民——確保生豬的健康。
“If they are not happy, and not eating well, in some cases you can predict whether the pig is sick,” said Jackson He, chief executive officer of Yingzi Technology, a small firm based in the southern city of Guangzhou that has introduced its vision of a “future pig farm” with facial and voice recognition technologies.
“如果它們不開心，不好好吃東西，在某些情況下，你可以推知豬生病了，”影子科技的首席執(zhí)行官何京翔說。這家規(guī)模不大的公司位于南部城市廣州，它提出了通過面部和語音識別技術來實現“未來養(yǎng)豬場”的方案。
China’s biggest tech firms want to pamper pigs, too. Alibaba, the e-commerce giant, and JD.com, its rival, are using cameras to track pigs’ faces. Alibaba also uses voice-recognition software to monitor their coughs.

中國最大的科技公司也想寵愛豬。電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和它的競爭對手京東(JD.com)正在使用攝像頭追蹤豬的臉。阿里巴巴還使用語音識別軟件來監(jiān)控它們的咳嗽。

Many in China are quick to embrace high-tech solutions to just about any problem. A digital revolution has transformed China into a place where nearly anything — financial services, spicy takeout, manicures and dog grooming, to name a few — can be summoned with a smartphone. Facial recognition has been deployed in public bathrooms to dispense toilet paper, in train stations ;to apprehend criminals and in housing complexes to open doors.
在中國，很多人樂于用高科技解決方案去處理一切問題。數字革命將中國變成了一個幾乎任何事情都可以用智能手機搞定的地方——金融服務、辛辣的外賣、美甲和寵物狗美容等等。面部識別技術已經出現在公共廁所（用于發(fā)放廁紙）、火車站，用于抓捕犯罪分子以及住宅小區(qū)的門禁。
This pig push, however, may be a step too soon.
然而，用在豬身上可能還為時過早。
“I like the idea, I like the concept, but I need to be shown that it works,” said Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of veterinary epidemiology at the City University of Hong Kong. “Because if it doesn’t work, it’s counterproductive.”
“我喜歡這個想法，我喜歡這個概念，但它的效果還有待證明，”香港城市大學(City University of Hong Kong)獸醫(yī)流行病學教授迪爾克·法伊弗(Dirk Pfeiffer)說。“因為如果無效的話，就會起到適得其反的作用。”
Facial recognition won’t help unless China has a comprehensive database of pig faces to track their movement, he pointed out. Also, facial recognition doesn’t help “once the animal is in the slaughterhouse and they chop it into bits.”
他指出，除非中國有一個全面的豬只面部數據庫來跟蹤它們的動向，否則面部識別不會有什么作用。此外，“一旦動物進了屠宰場，被剁成塊”，面部識別也就沒用了。
“How then can you connect the head to the rest of the carcass?” Professor Pfeiffer asked.
“你要怎么把頭和身體的其余部分聯系起來呢？”法伊弗問道。
Many of China’s pig farmers are also skeptical. China is in the midst of closing and consolidating many of its small pig farms, blaming them for polluting the environment. But there are still 26 million small pig farms in the country, representing about half the number of farms, according to the agriculture ministry and experts.
中國的許多養(yǎng)豬戶對此也持懷疑態(tài)度。目前，中國正在關閉、整合許多小養(yǎng)豬場，認為它們污染環(huán)境。但據農業(yè)部和專家稱，中國仍有2600萬座小養(yǎng)豬場，約占全國養(yǎng)豬場數量的一半。
“We will not choose to invest in these things,” said Wang Wenjun, a 27-year-old farmer who won a modest amount of fame after he uploaded videos of himself singing to his hogs.
“我們不會選擇投資這些東西，”27歲的農民王文軍（音）說。他把自己對著豬唱歌的視頻傳到網上后，獲得了一點知名度。
“Unless it’s a large-scale pig farm, farms that have just over a couple hundred pigs will not find a use for it.”
“除非是大型養(yǎng)豬場，只有幾百頭豬的養(yǎng)豬場用不上它。”
Broadly, the Chinese government in recent years has endorsed technology on the farm. Its most recent five-year plan, a major economic planning document, calls for increased use of robotics and network technology. In October, the State Council, or China’s cabinet, said it wanted to promote “intelligent farming” and the application of information technology in agriculture. In August, Beijing city agricultural officials praised “raising pigs in a smart way” using the A-B-C-Ds: artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and data technology.
總體上講，中國政府近年來大力推進科技在農場的運用。在最近的五年計劃里——這是經濟規(guī)劃方面的重要文件，呼吁加大機器人和網絡技術的運用。去年10月，國務院曾表示，希望推動“智能農場”，以及信息技術在農業(yè)上的應用。去年8月，北京市的農業(yè)官員對利用ABCD的智慧養(yǎng)豬大加贊賞。A是人工智能，B是區(qū)塊鏈，C是云計算，D是數據技術。
So when African swine fever swept through China’s farms, the country’s technology companies saw an opportunity. The disease has no known vaccine or cure. It can spread through contact between animals or through infected pig products, meaning it can lurk for months in sausages or ham. It doesn’t affect humans, but they can carry it. China has culled nearly a million pigs, set up roadblocks and built fences, to no avail.
于是當非洲豬瘟席卷中國養(yǎng)豬場時，中國的科技公司看到了機會。該疾病尚無已知的疫苗或療法。它可以通過動物之間的接觸、或通過受感染的豬肉產品傳播，這意味著它可以在香腸或火腿里潛伏好幾個月。它不會導致人類感染，但人類可以成為病毒攜帶者。中國已經撲殺了近百萬頭豬，設置路障，豎起籬笆，但都無濟于事。
There’s a lot at stake. China is the world’s largest pig breeder, with a current population of about 400 million, and its largest pork consumer. The meat is so important that the country has its own strategic pork reserve in the event of a shortage.
這關系到很多事情。中國是世界上最大的生豬養(yǎng)殖國，當前養(yǎng)殖量約為4億頭，也是最大的豬肉消費國。豬肉如此重要，以致于中國有自己的戰(zhàn)略性豬肉儲備，以防出現短缺。
The disease could also ripple across borders. It has been found in sausages transported by Chinese tourists in Australia, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand, stoking fears that it could end up in the United States. A prolonged outbreak could cause prices to rise globally.
非洲豬瘟還可能波及到邊境以外。在中國游客帶到澳大利亞、臺灣、日本和泰國的香腸中都發(fā)現了豬瘟病毒，從而引發(fā)其可能會傳到美國的擔憂。長時間的疫情爆發(fā)可能會導致全球價格上漲。
Government rules to fight the swine fever prevent outsiders from visiting pig farms to see the technology in action, so claims by the companies couldn’t be independently verified. Local media and the companies said several big farms use the systems.
政府下達的抗擊豬瘟令阻止外部人士訪問養(yǎng)豬場，查看在使用中的技術，因此企業(yè)所聲稱的情況無法進行獨立核實。當地媒體和一些公司稱，幾家大型養(yǎng)豬場在用這類系統(tǒng)。
The companies backing the technology say they can help farmers isolate disease carriers, reduce the cost of feed, increase the fertility of sows and reduce unnatural deaths. JD.com’s system uses robots to feed pigs the correct amount of food depending on the animals’ stage of growth. SmartAHC, a company that uses A.I. to monitors pigs’ vital statistics that offers commercially available services, hooks up sows with wearable monitors that can predict the pigs’ ovulation time.
支持該技術的公司稱，他們能幫助豬農隔離攜帶病毒的病豬，降低飼養(yǎng)成本，增強母豬的生育能力，減少非正常死亡。京東的系統(tǒng)通過機器人，根據相應的生長階段，給豬喂食適量食物。睿畜科技使用人工智能對豬只進行生命統(tǒng)計，并提供商用服務，他們給母豬扣上可預測豬排卵時間的可穿戴監(jiān)測器。
They pitch their technologies as an alternative to the tagging of pigs’ ears, a practice that many farmers find cruel. The tags — which are far cheaper — can be manipulated by humans or fall off if pigs get into fights, they point out.
他們標榜自己的技術是給豬戴耳標的替代方式，后一種做法讓很多豬農感到殘忍。他們認為，便宜得多的耳標可以被人為篡改，如果豬打起架來則可能會脫落。
JD.com’s facial technology can detect if a pig is sick and try to find out why, said a spokeswoman, Lu Yishan. Its system would then notify the breeder, who can then prescribe treatment. The company said that it has put the system into use at a farm in China’s northern Hebei Province that it created with China Agricultural University in Beijing, and that it is for sale to willing farmers.
京東的面部識別技術可檢測豬是否患病，并試圖找出病因，發(fā)言人陸一姍（音）稱。其系統(tǒng)隨后會通知飼養(yǎng)人，以便他開藥治療。京東稱該系統(tǒng)已經應用于北方省份河北的一座養(yǎng)殖場，是京東與北京的中國農業(yè)大學共同創(chuàng)辦的，此外也會對外出售給愿意購買的豬農。
Alibaba’s system monitors hog activity and allows farmers to track the swine in real time, the company said in a statement. It would then prescribe an exercise plan to improve their health. Its marketing video shows pigs running in the woods and playing with a ball. Alibaba said Tequ Group, a large pig farming company based in the southwestern province of Sichuan, uses the technology. Tequ didn’t respond to a request for comment.
阿里巴巴在聲明中稱其系統(tǒng)可監(jiān)測豬的活動情況，使豬農得以實時跟蹤豬瘟疫情。系統(tǒng)還會制定鍛煉計劃以改善豬的健康。營銷視頻顯示豬在林子里奔跑玩球。阿里巴巴稱，總部位于西南省份四川的大型養(yǎng)豬公司特驅集團使用了該技術。特驅未回應置評請求。
Pig facial recognition works the same way as human facial recognition, the companies say. Scanners and software take in the bristles, the snout, the eyes and ears. The features are mapped. Pigs don’t all look alike when you know what to look for, they said.
豬臉識別和人臉識別工作原理相同，兩家公司稱。豬鬃、豬嘴、豬眼和豬耳被錄入掃描儀和軟件，將這些特性繪制出來。如果你知道該往哪里看，豬的長相并非一模一樣，他們說。
“It’s just like how a human face is different from others,” said Mr. He, of Yingzi.
“和人臉的互不相同是一回事，”影子科技的何京翔說。
The pigs don’t always cooperate. Yingzi, which introduced its products commercially last year, uses video to capture them in motion.
有時候豬會不愿意配合。去年推出了商用產品的影子科技用視頻捕捉豬的動態(tài)。
“You can’t take a single picture of a pig,” said Mr. He, who is trying to add to his database of more than 200,000 pig images. He said his technology, which is being used in a pig farm in the southern region of Guangxi, won’t eliminate swine fever but could help farmers detect it sooner.
“你不能只是拍一張豬的照片，”何京翔說，他試圖把20多萬張豬的圖片添加到他的數據庫中。他說他的技術無法消除豬瘟，但能幫助豬農更早地檢測到病情。其技術目前在南方省份廣西的一家養(yǎng)豬場得以應用。
Not everybody in the pig technology field agrees on approach.
在養(yǎng)豬技術領域，并非人人都同意這種做法。
Chen Haokai, the co-founder of SmartAHC, said farmers don’t really need facial recognition. According to Mr. Chen, the cost of trying to map a pig’s face is about $7 versus $0.30 for tagging a pig’s ear. He said his products are used by four pig breeding companies.
睿畜科技聯合創(chuàng)始人陳浩凱稱，豬農其實并不需要豬臉識別。他表示，繪制一張豬臉的成本約為7美元，給豬戴耳標則只需0.3美元。他說他的產品有四家養(yǎng)豬公司在用。
“We found that in trying to capture the faces of pigs, the labor cost far exceeds that of tagging,” he said.
“我們發(fā)現，在捕捉豬臉方面，工本遠遠超過耳標，”他說。
Wang Lixian, a research fellow of animal and veterinary science at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is optimistic that the cost of the technologies will drop.
中國農業(yè)科學院畜牧獸醫(yī)研究所研究員王立憲樂觀地表示，這類技術的成本將會下降。
“Right now, these applications may not have reached their desired levels,” he said, “but in the future they will become more and more extensive.”
“眼下，這些應用可能還沒達到理想價位，”他說，“但未來它們會變得越來越廣泛。”