Studying the creatures of the deep sea — be they Giant Squid or Jaguar Sharks — is no easy feat. It’s cold, dark, and nearly inaccessible to humans. But that hasn’t stopped us from exploring the furthest depths of the ocean, and with these new 3D cameras China’s deep-diving Jiaolong submersible will be able to spot undocumented species in even pitch black waters.
Devised by a team at the Second Institute of Oceanography in Hangzhou, this camera snaps a series of three-dimensional images to build up a composite image of sea creatures. Like all 3-D cameras, this system utilizes two separately-mounted lenses to provide the stereoscopic perspective. This also allows researchers to accurately measure the dimensions of sea life without having to collect samples.
“We are not building the camera to shoot 3D movies, so you probably won’t be blown away by the visual effects of the final product. But it will be the most precise visual reconstruction ever of these elusive creatures,” Professor Yang Junyi , a marine biologist heading the project told the South China Morning Post. “It may answer some of the biggest mysteries of the deep.” Who knows what sorts if exotic life we’ll discover seven kilometers below the waves? [South China Morning Post]