Innovation of an AI Tool to Locate Using Microorganisms

24th December 2024

2 minutes read

Innovation of an AI Tool to Locate Using Microorganisms

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have developed a groundbreaking AI tool capable of determining a person’s last location by analyzing the microorganisms they encountered during their travels.

The tool can also identify whether a person has visited specific environments such as beaches, train stations, or parks. Unlike traditional GPS technology, this tool relies on the unique microbial fingerprints of various geographical locations.

Unique Fingerprints

Each geographical location hosts distinct microbial communities, enabling researchers to link a person’s microbiome to specific places. Unlike standard GPS systems that rely on satellite signals, this AI-based system associates unique microbial patterns with geographical areas, identifying recent locations visited based on the microorganisms encountered.

To achieve this, the AI model was trained on an extensive dataset of microbiome samples from diverse environments worldwide. This dataset included 53 cities, 237 soil samples from 18 countries, and 131 marine microbiomes from 9 different bodies of water.

By analyzing these microbial samples, the AI model learned to distinguish diverse microbial fingerprints and associate them with specific geographical coordinates.

High Accuracy

The tool accurately identified the city of origin for 92% of the urban samples analyzed. In one test, it successfully distinguished two subway stations in Hong Kong located just 300 meters apart. It also identified differences between surfaces in New York City subway stations, distinguishing a sidewalk shop from an electrical pole less than a meter away.

As more microbial data is collected, the AI model’s accuracy is expected to improve, paving the way for more applications in real-world environments.

This technology could play a crucial role in fields like forensic science, helping in crime scene investigations, and extending to other areas such as medicine, epidemiology, outbreak tracking, and identifying sources of microbial resistance.

Overall, this innovation represents a significant advancement in our understanding of microbial geography and provides new insights into human-environment interactions.