Scientists have developed an image scanning program that can distinguish between individual zebras by their stripes:
When a zebra has been entered into the database and given a StripeCode, the researchers match another picture of the same animal by comparing the StripeStrings of the new and original images. Each image will generate a different set of StripeStrings, but the underlying ratios of black and white should remain similar.
By finding the StripeCode with the most similar StripeStrings in the database, the system is able to accurately identify the correct animal. Other existing zebra identification systems are less accurate, more complex, and require a greater level of manual input from the user.
Link via io9 | Photo by Flickr user ross_hawkes used under Creative Commons license
Previously: Tim Flach's Barcode Zebra