Going high-tech in marine conservation
Remotely operated underwater vehicles, 3D mapping, virtual reality and 5K cameras are among the high tech solutions used during Redang Island Conservation Day, writes Bruce Hope
AMARINE conservation initiative called Redang Island Conservation Day (RICD) was held at The Taaras Beach and Spa Resort in Redang island, off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia at the end of April. The goal was to perform a clean-up, and the initiative collected more than 400kg of plastic, bottles, cans and ropes.
The Malaysia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce (MNZCC), as a partner for this event, facilitated the use of some amazing technology for capturing and displaying the underwater world at Redang.
MNZCC IN MARINE CONSERVATION
Although a very worthy cause, marine conservation is not something that is associated with a chamber of commerce, like MNZCC, but how it got involved in this is interesting.
It started when one of the chamber members, Roger Konopasek, was talking to MNZCC chairman Bruce Hope and said: “Hey Bruce, we gotta do a clean-up at Pulau Redang.”
Konopasek had been to The Taaras Beach and Spa Resort early last year and during some recreational freediving, he came upon quite a bit of rubbish on the sea floor.
He cleaned up some himself but knew it wasn’t enough. It’s a great idea, but what was the link to New Zealand?
During a rare moment of watching TV, Hope saw an episode of a series called Fish
of the Day which is made in New Zealand. The presenter had mentioned about Boxfish Research on his Twitter feed.
A quick Internet search found it and contact was made with the team which has the ultimate in 360-degree underwater cameras and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). It was totally cool when it agreed to join, but there was more.
3D MAPPING
As part of the network of New Zealand chambers in Asean, Revisia was identified by Hope as potentially a company that could be involved in the project.
Revisia managing director Mark Foster was asked if he would like to do some reef mapping also known as underwater photogrammetry.
Foster’s company is well versed in 3D mapping, using the latest 3D imaging technologies to solve complex problems in engineering and maintenance for its industrial and manufacturing clients.
One 3D mapping technique in particular, known as photogrammetry, is where 3D spatial information is extracted from a series of overlapping photographs, for instance, for a given land mass or structure.
Applying the technique under water, however, was a bit of an unknown — but in true kiwi spirit, Foster was willing to give it a go.
Calling upon his mechanical engineering skills and a bit of “kiwi number 8 wire”, Foster managed to build a stereo photography rig, using a selfie stick and a couple of Go Pro cameras.
In the buildup to RICD on Redang, event partner aquariaKLCC hosted a Press conference on Earth Day on April 22.
It was an excellent event all round, with media, partners and supporters in attendance.
However, there was a last minute hiccup — the Boxfish Research ROV was unable to be shipped from New Zealand as the courier company did not want to transport the Lithium Ion batteries.
Fortunately, one of the MNZCC corporate members, Beribu Jaya, was able to help. It was bringing in a Trident ROV from openROV to be used for its pool service works, and offered to let it be used for the Press conference as well as at the RICD event.
During the Press conference, the openROV ease of use was displayed — it was piloted by Jade Hope, 8, and her sister Isabelle, 10, using a tablet with an app based controller. The intention to use the ROV during the event was to accurately capture the status of the marine environment.
RCID
The RICD event itself had 60 participants with 23 divers and the rest on shore cleanup activities.
Foster from Revisia and Russell Hughes from Boxfish Research set to work capturing and creating content. The aim was to present something at the Flavours of New Zealand Gala Dinner. The first dive was on Friday morning, and the dinner was on Saturday evening — only 30 hours.
The tasks were split along the lines of: Hughes doing the diving and filming, Foster directing and post-production. Given the time constraints, it was decided to 360-degree film a fishing net recovery to raise awareness of what’s happening to the seabed, a 360-degree film of a swim-by for tourism and promotional purposes, and a fully immersive virtual reality experience using the 3D model of the reef captured during the photogrammetry exercise.
FILMING
Filming using the world leading innovative Boxfish 360 camera is relatively straightforward. Russell hand carried it, and used a handpole for some of the dives and a tripod for the swim-by.
It’s a heavy beastie box when it’s out of the water but dropping it was not an option. The Boxfish 360 Camera creates 360-degree video and stills for VR content and outreach in 5K resolution at depths of up to 300 metres.
The underwater photogrammetry was a little more challenging but handled with remarkable ease. An area was marked out using a string line for visual reference, then several reference measurements were taken for scale. Under instruction from Foster, Hughes then set forth swimming up and down the area of interest in a gridlike pattern, photographing the reef using Foster’s custom camera rig (consisting of a couple of GoPro cameras with underwater housings).
After this, the footage was ready to be processed. Foster then locked himself in his hotel room and began processing the photogrammetry model.
Once completed, he then prepared a virtual reality experience using the resulting 3D model of the reef.
OUTCOME
The results were simply phenomenal. The first person to try the virtual reality experience was Datuk Seri Robin Tan of Berjaya. He was so impressed he wanted to buy his own.
The 2D pictures that go with this article do not do justice to the amazing VR experience created by Boxfish Research and Revisia. The 3D reef mapping by Revisia can be found at https://skfb.ly/6zpCH and a swimthrough of the reef can be found on the Boxfish Research facebook page (www.facebook.com/BoxfishResearch/ videos/1281881428610883/).
However, to allow more people to experience the thrill of diving (on land), and educate themselves on marine conservation, MNZCC is partnering with The Rift in Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur to showcase Gaming: The future of Work and Education.
This is planned for the second half of this year.