• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.684-694
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• 2012

In the underwater environment, light is absorbed and scattered by water and floating particles, which makes the underwater images suffer from color degradation and limited visibility. Physically, the amount of the scattered light transmitted to the image is proportional to the distance between the camera and the object. In this paper, the proposed visibility enhancement. method utilizes depth images to estimate the light transmission and the degradation factor by the scattered light. To recover the scatter-free images without unnatural artifacts, the proposed method normalizes the degradation factor based on the value of each pixel of the image. Finally, the scatter-free images are obtained by removing the scattered components on the image according to the estimated transmission. The proposed method also considers the color discrepancies of underwater stereo images so that the stereo images have the same color appearance after the visibility enhancement. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves the color contrast more than 5% to 14% depending on the experimental images.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.110-117
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• 2023

Reconstructing underwater geometry in real time with forward-looking sonar is critical for applications such as localization, mapping, and path planning. Geometrical data must be repeatedly calculated and overwritten in real time because the reliability of the acoustic data is affected by various factors. Moreover, scattering of signal data during the coordinate conversion process may lead to geometrical errors, which lowers the accuracy of the information obtained by the sensor system. In this study, we propose a three-step data processing method with low computational cost for real-time operation. First, the number of data points to be interpolated is determined with respect to the distance between each point and the size of the data grid in a Cartesian coordinate system. Then, the data are processed with a nonlinear interpolation so that they exhibit linear properties in the coordinate system. Finally, the data are transformed based on variations in the position and orientation of the sonar over time. The results of an evaluation of our proposed approach in a simulation show that the nonlinear interpolation operation constructed a continuous underwater geometry dataset with low geometrical error.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.8-17
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• 2023

Various sources, such as wind, waves, ships, and gas leaks from the seafloor, forms bubbles in the ocean. Underwater bubbles cause signal scattering, considerably affecting acoustic measurements. This characteristic of bubbles is used to block underwater noise by attenuating the intensity of the propagated signal. Recently, researchers have been studying the large-scale release of methane gas as bubble plumes from the seabed. Understanding the physical properties and distribution of bubble plumes is crucial for studying the relation between leaked methane gas and climate change. Therefore, a water tank experiment was conducted to estimate the distribution of bubble plumes using seismic imaging techniques and acoustic signals obtained from artificially generated bubbles using a bubble generator. Reverse time migration was applied to image the bubble plumes while the acquired acoustic envelope signal was used to effectively estimate bubble distribution. Imaging results were compared with optical camera images to verify the estimated bubble distribution. The water tank experiment confirmed that the proposed system could successfully image the distribution of bubble plumes using reverse time migration and the envelope signal. The experiment showed that the scattering signal of artificial bubble plumes can be used for seismic imaging.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1984.12a
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• pp.96-99
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• 1984

In this study, the underwater acoustic images were obtained by ultrasonicwave. The experiment was performed in the anechoic watertank, using a passive sonar array for one and two sound source respectively by X-Y scanning technique. The receiving array was consist of 8 disc type transducers with 1.5cm diameter at 25KHz resonance frequency. The scanned data were processed by the FORTRAN IV algorithm for the reconstruction of image, and the image had some noise due to the surface reflected waves. As the result, it was found that the acoustic imaging by electrical deflection and dynamic focusing technique is applicable to SONAR with the suppression of surface reflected wave.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.35-41
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• 2018

The analysis of plankton species distribution in sea or fresh water is very important in preserving marine ecosystem health. Since manual analysis is infeasible, many automatic approaches were proposed. They usually use images from in situ towed underwater imaging sensor or specially designed, lab mounted microscopic imaging system. Normally they assume that only single plankton is present in an image so that, if there is a clumping among multiple plankton of same species (homogeneous clumping) or if there are multiple plankton of different species scattered in an image (heterogeneous interspersion), they have a difficulty in recognition. In this work, we propose a deep learning based method that can detect and recognize individual plankton in images with homogeneous clumping, heterogeneous interspersion, or combination of both.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.926-932
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• 2017

Image distortion can occur when photographing deep sea targets with an optical camera. This problem arises because sunlight is not sufficiently transmitted due to seawater and various floating particles of dust. Particularly, color distortion takes place, causing green and blue color channels to be over emphasized due to water depth, while distortion of boundaries also occurs due to light refraction by seawater and floating particles of dust. These distortions degrade the overall quality of underwater images. In this paper, we analyze underwater images of the bottom of vessels. Based on the results, we propose a technique for color correction and edge enhancement. Experimental results show that the proposed method increases edge clarity by 3.39 % compared to the effective edges of the original underwater image. In addition, a quantitative evaluation and subjective image quality evaluation were concurrently performed. As a result, it was confirmed that object boundaries became clear with color correction. The color correction and contour enhancement method proposed in this paper can be applied in various fields requiring underwater imaging in the future.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.601-610
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• 2013

As a standard water clarity variable, the vertical underwater visibility, called Secchi depth, is estimated with ocean color satellite data. In the present study, Moderate Resolvtion Imaging Spectradiometer (MODIS) data are used to measure the Secchi depth which is a useful indicator of ocean transparency for estimating the water quality and productivity. To estimate the Secchi depth $Z_v$, the empirical regression model is developed based on the satellite optical data and in-situ data. In the previous study, a semi-analytical algorithm for estimating $Z_v$ was developed and validated for Case 1 and 2 waters in both coastal and oceanic waters using extensive sets of satellite and in-situ data. The algorithm uses the vertical diffuse attenuation coefficient, $K_d$($m^{-1}$) and the beam attenuation coefficient, c($m^{-1}$) obtained from satellite ocean color data to estimate $Z_v$. In this study, the semi-analytical algorithm is validated using temporal MODIS data and in-situ data over the Yellow, Southern and East Seas including Case 1 and 2 waters. Using total 156 matching data, MODIS $Z_v$ data showed about 3.6m RMSE value and 1.7m bias value. The $Z_v$ values of the East Sea and Southern Sea showed higher RMSE than the Yellow Sea. Although the semi-analytical algorithm used the fixed coupling constant (= 6.0) transformed from Inherent Optical Properties (IOP) and Apparent Optical Properties (AOP) to Secchi depth, various coupling constants are needed for different sea types and water depth for the optimum estimation of $Z_v$.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.94-100
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• 2017

In the case of the side scan sonar operated by the towing method, the underwater structure electric jig was developed because there is a difficulty in the cross-sectional survey that the user wants when conducting the survey. However, in the case of the sound wave photographing method using the electric jig, since the boat and the sonar behaves as one body, data distortion has occurred due to various problems according to working environment, such as, the rolling phenomenon of the boat due to the wave and the fluctuation of the sonic image due to the inoperability of the boat driver. Therefore, in order to solve the image blurring caused by the operation of the equipment for underwater survey of the existing side scan sonar, in this research, the program was supplemented to enable the shake correction by attaching the shake correction sensor and developing the shake correction algorithm. In order to verify the improvement of the sonar data resolution, the sonic images before and after the shake correction were collected through on-site investigation and the analysis of the sonic image data acquired by a diver measuring the actual damage length and depth. This study is expected to contribute to the development of sonar imaging technique of the underwater surface of the structure and bed surface of the sea or a river using the side scan sonar in the future.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.411-417
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• 2001

Due to international law the Antarctic is currently the best protected large ecosystem on earth, providing the opportunity for scientific research into processes of both regional and global importance. However, it is impossible to carry out research activities without minor disturbances to the environment. The Weddell Sea with its shelf inhabiting fauna can be considered to be representative for the entire Antarctic shelf with exceptions. It has generally escaped major anthropogenic impact but it is the only area in the high latitude Antarctic where long-term research fishing has been carried out. There are two main results combining aspects of nature conservation and benthos research. Firstly, the use of dredges has clearly decreased over the last two decades, whilst the use of non-invasive underwater photography and video has significantly increased. Secondly, during the same period icebergs destroyed an area of the seafloor and its fauna more than 2000-times greater than the area affected by research trawls. The increased use of imaging methods, Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and other modem instruments, as well as statistically based and coordinated sampling strategies can contribute to both a better understanding of ecosystem function and to an ongoing reduction in anthropogenic impact.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.2142-2144
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• 2015

3D FLS is a active sonar that can represent the underwater inside visually in forward direction. We discuss on the decrease of bubbles from breaking waves in 3D FLS frames. In the experiment using the bubbles reduction filter the effect of bubbles was decreased a lot.