The search was conducted using a camera mounted on a pole deployed from a 20’ vessel. Arc search patterns were executed using the boat motor to move the vessel left and right, while the bow of the vessel was fixed to a post on shore.

The LYYN T38 was connected between the pole camera and a DVR. A second monitor was plugged into the DVR so that Sam could see in the highly turbid water.

Broward County Sheriff's Office divers

Footage by:

Deputy Sam Lapinsky
Broward County Sheriff’s Office
Marine Unit/Dive Rescue Team

Sam also runs his own company: Innovative Dive Equipment Inc.

The key to successful underwater vision is getting rid of the water! This cliché is as old as underwater photography itself, but it’s still true today. Depth, distance, lighting, turbidity of the water, salinity, and pollution all contribute to the visibility, and the perception of size, shape, and color of underwater objects. Adding the abilities and limitations of the human eye and brain makes this a very challenging environment. However, technological development is rapidly pushing the limits of what we can see and do underwater.

Water vs. air

Water is 800 times denser than air. When light enters water, it interacts with the water molecules and particles, resulting in loss of light intensity, color changes, diffusion, loss of contrast and other effects. If you take an underwater photo of an object one meter away, it will be similar to a photo above water at 800 meters; both will look bluish and lack contrast.

Light under water

ROV inspection of a pipeline in highly turbid water where the center of the image has been lyynified

Sun light is reflected by the surface of the water, which causes significant changes in visibility and the perception of color underwater. Depending on waves light may form patterns or become randomly diffused. The amount of light reflected also depends on the geographical location, the time of day, weather conditions, the season and the condition of the sea.

If you descend more than a couple of meters you will need to bring your own light source. Unfortunately, lamps tend to have a ‘hot spot’, resulting in an image with a very bright center becoming darker towards the edges.  In turbid waters a camera sensor will be almost blinded by the reflections at the center while the edges appear very dark. So the ideal camera should have a highly dynamic low-light sensor reducing the need for high-power illumination.

Or – you could use electronic video enhancement technology like lyynification™ from LYYN®.

Color under water

An important part of vision underwater is being able to distinguish different colors, or actually specific wavelengths of light being reflected off objects and picked up by the eye or the camera sensor. Different wavelengths are absorbed differently as the light passes through the water. The shorter the wavelength, the deeper (longer) it will reach before being absorbed. This causes objects to lose their color as you go deeper down or further away.

Weeds, rocks, animals and man-made objects generally appear to have the same color as the depth or viewing range increases. Objects become distinguishable only by differences in brightness and not color. Contrast becomes the most important factor in visibility, and even very large objects may be undetectable if their brightness is similar to that of the background.

Part of the image lyynified, bringing out the beauty of the reef

Water depth is not the only factor effecting the filtering of colors. Salinity, turbidity, the size of suspended particles, and pollution all affect the color-filtering properties of water. For instance, plankton absorbs purples and blues. So the presence of plankton would cause blue and purple objects to lose their colors much faster than red and yellow objects.

Humans on-site can make some ad­justment, psychological in part, which allows divers to perceive some of the warm colors of the coral reef. But camera sensors have no ability to compensate for the blue/green filtering of sea water. This is why the fantastic colors of the reef appear cold and lifeless when you look at your holiday photos or videos at home.

Turbidity and contrast

The center part is lyynified, clearly showing the details of a wreck

Bright particles in water reflect and scatter light, resulting in diffusion. Sometimes, diffusion is helpful because it sheds light on areas that would otherwise be in shadow. Normally, however, diffusion interferes with vision because the backscattering reduces the contrast between an object and its surroundings.

The loss of contrast resulting from diffusion and loss of color spectrum are the major reasons why vision underwater is so much more restricted than it is on land.

Underwater photographers have been battling with these problems since the early days. One can use different filters to try to compensate for the loss of a particular wavelength, or the white-balancing feature on video cameras that tries to compensate for the color cast. But all these traditional methods are very crude with severe limitations.

LYYN technology

The revolutionary method of lyynification™ takes a different approach.  Each video frame is optimized for contrast and color spectrum to make it as “natural” as possible to the human eye. Even the smallest fragments of color and object shape can be extracted from the camera sensor to restore the scene as much as possible. And all this is done in real-time. The result is an image that constantly self-adjusts to the environment, and the diver or ROV pilot can focus on mission objectives.

Dacon AS is a leading manufacturer and supplier of maritime rescue equipment, with the development, production, sales and export of approved man-overboard recovery systems, as well as the Dacon Rescue Dummy for realistic training purposes.

Dacon AS is Norway’s largest distributor and a leading expert on portable lighting equipment for professional and safety use, with Peli Products as main product line. Pelicase protector cases, Fisher Space Pen, Aquapac and Ramfan turbo ventilators are also distributed by the Lights & Cases department.

Dacon is also a leading supplier of both standard and tailored visual inspection equipment and advanced camera systems, for which they offer LYYN Hawk board™ integrated into the solution.

A customer case

The Dacon Snapper with the LYYN Hawk™ control panel integrated into the control unit (lower right corner).

Dacon AS was contacted by Fugro-Geoteam AS with a request for a new camera system for the inspection of in-sea equipment for seismic investigation. Dacon has earlier designed similar systems for Fugro but with other specifications.  This time the requirement was a system for 12 VDC, both battery and external power. They also wanted the units to have higher recording abilities but smaller in size.

The solution is based on a Sanyo zoom lens camera, an LCD monitor and a new type of Li-Ion battery. It is also equipped with integrated LYYN Hawk Board™ for real-time image enhancement and an Archos 605 (40GB) recording unit. Dacon managed to fit the whole system into two small Peli cases, and with a capacity of over 3 hours of battery time.

Fugro-Geoteam AS is very happy with their new cameras.

The Dacon Snapper with the LYYN Hawk™ control panel integrated into the control unit (lower right corner). Click image for a larger version.

More information in the Dacon subsea camera system product sheet.

Please visit the Dacon web site for more information about Dacon AS.

The main focus of the company is the development and manufacturing of underwater video cameras and compact remote-controlled underwater survey vehicles (ROV), as well as carrying out underwater contracted works. Initially the ROV Gnom was designed for the company’s own needs, but because of the high-tech engineering solutions it has also become attractive for Russian and foreign customers. Today Indel-Partner offers several GNOM models designed for different tasks and depth ranges and equipped with umbilical cables in different lengths, diverse video cameras, manipulators etc.

The main advantages of the ROV Gnom:

• Easy to use – even one person can operate the ROV using game joystick
• Very convenient for operations from any water craft – the ROV can be launched from large vessel or even from rubber boat
• High availability – the whole system setup time is less than 3-5 minutes
• High maneuvering capability and ability to operate in hard-to-reach places such as small holes and cavities
• Simple transportation – the whole system can be packed in two cases and carried by hand.
• Battery power supply built in surface control case.
• The GNOM’s price is relatively low in comparison with similar devices.

Indel-Partner has produced more than 230 ROV GNOM of sevral types that have been used on a wide range of underwater projects all over the world.

They offer integrated LYYN Hawk Boards™ or LYYN T38s™ as accessory add-ons.

For more information visit the Indel-Partner web site.