Abstract
A GO-PRO underwater stereo camera kit has been used to measure the 3D topography (bathymetry) of a patch of seafloor producing a point cloud with a spatial data density of 15 measurements per 3 mm grid square and an standard deviation of less than 1 cm A GO-PRO camera is a fixed focus, 11 megapixel, still-frame (or 1080p high-definition video) camera, whose small form-factor and water-proof housing has made it popular with sports enthusiasts. A stereo camera kit is available providing a waterproof housing (to 61 m / 200 ft) for a pair of cameras. Measures of seafloor micro-bathymetrycapable of resolving seafloor features less than 1 cm in amplitude were possible from the stereoreconstruction. Bathymetric measurements of this scale provide important ground-truth data and boundary condition information for modeling of larger scale processes whose details depend on small-scale variations. Examples include modeling of turbulent water layers, seafloor sediment transfer and acoustic backscatter from bathymetric echo sounders.
Department
Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping
Publication Date
10-2012
Journal Title
IEEE Oceans
Conference Date
Oct 14 - Oct 19, 2012
Publisher Place
Hampton Roads, VA, USA
Publisher
IEEE
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1109/OCEANS.2012.6404786
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Recommended Citation
V. E. Schmidt and Y. Rzhanov, "Measurement of micro-bathymetry with a GOPRO underwater stereo camera pair," 2012 Oceans, Oct. 2012.