The Rayfin – From Vision to Reality

In December 2016, Sea Technology Magazine published an article, written by SubC Imaging’s CTO Chad Collett, that focused on autonomous camera systems as the future of underwater imagery and  how to automate a camera system for  AUV and hybrid ROV operations. Challenges associated with environment interpretation, vehicle speed, data logging, resolution and optical zoom were detailed with proposed solutions.

Also covered in the article was the cost and time involved in reviewing acquired video.

“Traditional optical inspection involves manual review of video and image data. Often this represents a two-fold time cost of the original inspection. The footage is captured, which takes inspection time x and then is completely reviewed later, time y.“

Then he described how a system could cut down on the reviewing video time cost, “An ideal system would interpret the inspection autonomously, flag anomalies and log data with video. The flagged anomalies could then be quickly reviewed by a human, new time y.“

The full article can be viewed here.

Almost a  year later,  SubC has completed the development of the Rayfin; SubC Imaging’s first Autonomous camera that is a significant step forward in overcoming the identified challenges.

The Rayfin’s advanced camera features:

• Internal 4K UHD recording and 21 megapixel digital stills

• Hybrid LED and external laser sync direct from camera

• Dive interval programming (automated stills, recording, hibernate)

• Live video and image file transfer over Gigabit Ethernet

• Sensor fusion; built in IMU data logged with images/video

• Video, stills and data storage in SubC Dive Log format for easy review