HabCam 3 – Stereo System
The primary differences between the original HabCam vehicle and the current systems in development are the addition of a stereo camera system and a Teledyne Benthos C3D 200 kHz side scan acoustic system. The stereo cameras consist of a pair of 12-bit Prosilica gigabit Ethernet cameras (GE1380C, 1360×1024, 20 fps) coupled to a Nikon 12mm C-mount lens providing a field of view of about 1 m^2 at an altitude of 3m off the bottom. The stereo pair images may be viewed in real-time on the ship using a simple prism-based stereo viewer.
The C3D side scan unit communicates with software on the surface via Ethernet using a distinct IP address for real-time display, logging and processing.
Sensors and Equipment
4 Strobes – Perkin Elmer MVS-5000
HabCam II uses four 20 Watt-Second Machine Vision strobes (Perkin Elmer MVS-5000) mounted in underwater housings placed radially around the camera at a distance of about 50 cm. The strobe beams are focused and collimated with fresnel lenses to provide a rectangular beam pattern approximately 1 m2 at an altitude of 3 m off the bottom. Specifications PDF.
