PlasPI marine cameras: Open-source, affordable camera systems for time series marine studies

Autun Purser; Ulrich Hoge; Johannes Lemburg; Yasemin Bodur; Elena Schiller; Janine Ludszuweit; Jens Greinert; Simon Dreutter; Boris Dorschel; Frank Wenzhöfer

doi:10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00102

PlasPI marine cameras: Open-source, affordable camera systems for time series marine studies

HardwareX. 2020 Feb 28:7:e00102. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00102. eCollection 2020 Apr.

Authors

Autun Purser¹, Ulrich Hoge¹, Johannes Lemburg¹, Yasemin Bodur^{2

3}, Elena Schiller¹, Janine Ludszuweit¹, Jens Greinert^{1

4}, Simon Dreutter¹, Boris Dorschel¹, Frank Wenzhöfer^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.
² Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and Ecology, Bremen, Germany.
³ Department of Arctic Marine Biology, UiT - the Arctic University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway.
⁴ GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany.

Abstract

Imaging underwater can be particularly problematic and expensive given the harsh environmental conditions posed by salinity and for some deployments, pressure. To counter these difficulties, expensive waterproof pressure resistant housings are often used, commonly built from expensive materials such as titanium, if intended for long duration deployments. Further, environmental investigations often benefit from replicate data collection, which additionally increases study costs. In this paper we present a new camera system, developed with off the shelf and 3D printed cost effective components for use in shallow waters of <150 m depth. Integrating Raspberry Pi Zero W microcomputers with open source design files and software, it is hoped these camera systems will be of interest to the global marine and freshwater research communities.

Keywords: Marine imaging; Open source hardware; Rapid prototyping; Raspberry Pi; Time series.