Area calibration of an underwater camera for coral cover estimation

Abstract

The actual area of surveyed coral reef based on a stitched image of the reef from video was computed. Using linear regression, pixel length, actual length in meters per pixel, was estimated as a function of depth. An al- gorithm was used to eliminate excess pixels of the image that is generated by the stitching process. The computed areas of stitched reef images at different depths are compared and show reasonable results.