Video Enhancement Methods for Monitoring Submersible Biological Resources*

Developing of a marine monitoring system is a challenging task. Water medium introduces many challenges that must be taken into account. Quality of video is dramatically degraded by light absorption, scattering, non-uniform illumination, and noise. Image processing methods should be considered in order to enhance underwater video. In this paper, the design and implementation details of a submersible vision system are described. Image enhancement techniques are explained in detail. Video frames are filtered and colors are corrected in order to get proper visualization. Image quality after different enhancements is evaluated by a subjective method. The system is intended to help marine biologists and geologists in monitoring of seabed areas.