An intelligent monitoring system for horses - SLU Holding invests in Videquus AB
Videquus provides security for horse owners. The company has developed a system that, with the help of a security camera, image recognition and AI, can learn to recognise a specific horse, automatically activating an alarm upon detection of a change in the horse’s health condition or abnormal behaviour. SLU Holding AB is now coming on board as co-owner of the company.
Horses spend 8-10 hours per night in the stables unmonitored. In addition to an alarm function, Videquus’s camera service provides daily status updates. It is even possible to monitor the horses live instead of having to go back over the daily footage. The system also has a monitoring function specifically for foals.
“The team behind Videquus has developed value-adding technologies and services for those looking for greater peace of mind when it comes to their horses. To our knowledge, Videquus is the only solution that doesn’t require any additional equipment to be physically attached to the horses themselves in order to analyse their behaviour. The business is established in Sweden, and is now entering an exciting phase involving the recruitment of key personnel in order to scale operations to an international level. We see impressive drive within the company and opportunities to build on this with the help of SLU’s expertise,” says Mats Wiktorsson, who is a business developer at SLU Holding.
Together with professor Pia Haubro Andersen at SLU, behavioural studies are being conducted on mares in their last two weeks of pregnancy. Over the past year Videquus has filmed over 100 foals with a smart camera, which analysed the horses’ behaviour. The hope is that the studies will lead to entirely new knowledge on how the stress and pain-related behaviour displayed by horses prior to giving birth can be identified with the help of surveillance cameras. This could be extremely helpful in both ensuring the mare’s wellbeing and being able to more accurately anticipate when the foal will be born.
With the Videquus camera system and app it is easy to keep an eye on the horse without having to be in the stable.
Photo: Videquus.
“Thanks to SLU Holding’s investment in Videquus we are stepping up research and opportunities for developing new knowledge on horses’ behaviour, which can in turn contribute to improved horse welfare. Thanks to the data we have obtained thus far, amounting to over 400 years of footage, there is already a lot of material that can be used to analyse how horses behave in the stables. There are numerous opportunities for new studies, thanks to the speed at which data can be collected with the help of all the cameras installed at user properties. Furthermore, SLU Holding brings its brand and expertise to the table, helping to bolster Videquus’s reputation as a company that works to promote horse welfare,” states Linus Jernbom, CEO of Videquus.
“Looking ahead, the priority is to reach more users, ensuring even more horses are safe in their stable. We aim to grow both in Sweden and abroad. Besides growth, a vital step is developing our foal alarm system into one that can also detect colic-related behavioural patterns. Such behaviour is reminiscent of how a mare behaves before giving birth, which means that to a large degree, the same alarm could also be used for colic symptoms. This is something we hope to determine through working with researchers at SLU,” concludes Linus Jernblom, CEO of Videquus.
For more information
Read more about Videquus.
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Press Photos
Videquus övervakningssystem (med tillstånd från Videquus AB)
