Agriculture system for a new start, agriculture surveying business in Italy

This customer came to SeeSense looking for a camera system with which he could successfully start and grow his agriculture surveying business in Italy.  The system was fairly price critical but the customer also expected good quality results.  He owned a DJI Phantom drone and wanted the ability to optionally attach more than one camera.  He wanted to use the system to monitor plant health and spot any water irrigation issues.

SeeSense is the European master distributor for Mapir, a company located in San Diego and specialising in multi-spectral imaging camera systems for agriculture.

Mapir Survey 3 cameras can be supplied in a range of multi-spectral options along with a selection of accessories including lightweight drone mounts, GPS and cable accessories.

In this instance we offered the customer one of our special Mapir bundles which provide everything he needed to get started at a reduced price.  The system comprised a Mapir Survey3 OCN camera with 64GB micro SD card and lens protector, advanced GPS receiver, diffuse reflection calibration target, DJI Phantom dual tilting camera mount, spare battery and charger. 

The OCN camera is the best multi-spectral camera to review general crop health and could be mounted on to the drone in a very straightforward way.  The reflection target is designed to enable the user to calibrate images so they can be compared regardless of the weather, image exposure or time of the year.  It works in conjunction with FREE Mapir Camera Control software which is required to calibrate the images with the target.

The benefit of the Mapir Survey 3 camera system is that it is versatile, future proof, reliable and at an affordable price.  Since purchasing the initial bundle this customer has purchased two more cameras and is able to achieve all of the multispectral imaging requirements of his business.

RESEARCH & MEDICAL

UNDERWATER CAMERA SOLUTION FOR SWIMMING CLUB

This customer ran a swimming club and wanted to monitor and replay swimming techniques in order to improve performance.  In this case they owned a motorised camera trolley which sat on the bottom of the pool however this system could work just as easily by attaching the camera to a pole.

Here is the specification we received:
“The camera requirements for the underwater tracking camera system are: 1) HD output, 2) small/lightweight, 3) ideally waterproof (IP68), 4) minimum of 25 m cable for power feed and video output (cable NOT to be too heavy duty to avoid adding too much drag to the motorised camera trolley), 5) ideally the image should be captured directly to a SD card, 6) need to be able to see live feed to ensure camera has swimmer fully in field of view.”

We were able to provide a GoPro Hero 10 camera and CamDo Solutions 38m Underwater WiFi cable as a solution.  Any GoPro or action camera would work and you can also choose from a 7.5m, 15m, 38m or bespoke length cable from SeeSense.  The GoPro is a small and lightweight camera now capable of recording video quality in excess of 4K resolution.  These cameras feature built-in power and recording making the system much simpler to operate underwater. Control of the camera was simple as well; the Camdo Solutions underwater WiFi cable allows users to remotely control the camera and view live images.  WiFi does not transmit through water so this cable was essential for the solution to function at all!  The camera and surface tablet or smartphone WiFi is set to 2.4GHz and both devices are attached in close proximity to the boxes at both ends of the cable.  The camera WiFi is activated and the surface device can control the camera through the GoPro Quik application.

The camera was fitted into a GoPro dive housing for extra security and then attached to a mounting adapter on the cable ensuring that the WiFi receiver box is in as close proximity to the camera as possible.  This mount utilises the standard GoPro system so we supplied another adapter so the camera could attach to the trolley securely using standard ¼”-20 tripod mount.

In this instance we were able to fulfil every requirement in the specification provided by the customer.  The advantage of the system was that it was relatively low cost (ideal for a swimming club), they could view images and control the camera whilst it was underwater, and the camera had on-board power and recording capability.  This had the added benefit of reducing the cable requirement and thus ensuring that the motorised camera trolley could move easily with no drag.