Optical Continuous Three-dimensional Observation and Portrayal of Underwater Scenes (OCTOPUS)

The health of marine fish populations is currently monitored by several techniques including the use of submerged camera rigs. The video from the camera rigs has proven to be useful for detecting and counting fish, but accurately counting the fish is challenging because the fish can move in and out of the field of view of a camera. We propose to develop a camera that covers 360 degrees in azimuth, allowing for continuous monitoring and counting of fish. An additional challenge with today’s systems involves the ability to get an accurate measurement of fish length due to low resolution, poor synchronization, and small stereoscopic baselines. We propose to design a system that provides the ability to accurately measure length using high resolution cameras with accurate synchronization and baselines sufficient to get accurate length measurements. The camera system will be capable of creating a panoramic display of the scene that is stitched from multiple cameras and will allow for 3D modeling of scenes using sets of stereoscopic cameras. We propose to develop and test a pair(s) of stereo cameras in Phase I so that we can demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. We will also create a brassboard system, which we can build into a complete system in a Phase II effort, using multiple copies of the stereo pair along with additional control elements and software