Philippine patent for Fish-I granted

Featured image: IN ACTION. Fish-I being used during UP MSI’s 2024 expedition to Apo Reef, Occidental Mindoro. 

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) recently granted the Philippine patent for Fish-I, a computerized system for performing semi-automated fish census.

Fish-I is a collaborative project invented by Dr. Prospero Naval from the UPD Department of Computer Science and UP MSI Director Dr. Laura David. Fish-I uses a simple underwater camera rig and AI to automate rapid reef fish assessment. 

THE INVENTORS. Dr. Prospero Naval (left) and UP MSI Director Dr. Laura David (right) holding the American, Mexican, and Indonesian patents for Fish-I. (Photo from UP Diliman Technology Transfer and Business Development Office)

Fish-I provides high-quality information on the population and species distribution measurements in a certain area. With the videos it captures, it can estimate fish size, density, and species biodiversity. The data makes it possible for non-experts and divers with minimal knowledge to efficiently build a fish census for monitoring and further assessment. 

The patent for the Fish-I technology, titled “Estimating fish size, population density, species distribution and biomass”, was officially granted on May 3, 2024 and will last until 2036. The patent was filed in 2016.

Fish-I has already been deployed in various dive locations and marine protected areas in Indonesia, Hawaii, and in more than 50 sites in the Philippines. Earlier this year, Fish-I was also patented in the United States, Mexico, and Indonesia.

To learn more about Fish-I, visit their official website: https://fishi.ph/