Automated shallow coral reef mapping from image sequences using the teardrop system

In this project, an automated method of creating panoramic mosaics from video capture of coral reefs is presented. The proposed method creates panoramic images of the reef from the video capture, which are assumed to be approximately parallel to the benthic sea floor. the captured reef video is sepa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Corpuz, Francis James O. (Author)
Resource Type: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Quezon City College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman 2013.
Subjects:
Description
Summary:In this project, an automated method of creating panoramic mosaics from video capture of coral reefs is presented. The proposed method creates panoramic images of the reef from the video capture, which are assumed to be approximately parallel to the benthic sea floor. the captured reef video is separated into individual frames and are stitched sequentially. The overlap between image frames is estimated using Single-Step DFT, which uses correlation instead of image features. The overlapping sections between succeeding image-pairs are stitched along a seam determined by a minimal-cost path using dynamic programming. The visibility of the seam boundaries is minimized by utilizing blending on multi-resolution splines. The approximate geographical location is determined from the data recorded by a GPS Logger. The coordinates are embedded on the mosaicked images and overlaid on mapping software such as Google Earth for visual record and spatial information integration. To measure performance compared to other freely availably mosaicing programs, sample videos of a patterned surface were recorded and Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) of the data spread were analyzed. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm was able to limit distortion in situations where the camera is approximately parallel to the surface and when the camera is slightly tilted to induce distortion. The main contribution of this work is the demonstration of a kilometric-scale, rapid shallow coastal coral reef visualization system from videos from commercial grade digital cameras. The system is intended to replace traditional manta tow modes of reef monitoring and assessment while at the same time providing a permanent visual record of the reef for historical archiving and further analysis of marine experts.
Physical Description:xi, 87 leaves color illustrations 28 cm + 1 CD (4 3/4 in.)