What can you do with our DiveRay technology
The DiveRay have many applications, including:
- Long-time monitoring of seafloors, lake bottoms and river beds
- Conduct environmental impact analyses (e.g., support environmental consultancies)
- Inspect underwater constructions/repairs
- Scientific research (e.g., detect notorious algae, bleaching of corals, presence of coral-killing starfishes)
- Help explore the unknown 95% of our oceans
The obtained data is usually presented in the form of interactive color-coded maps. Depending on the user’s question(s), features on the maps can be highlighted (e.g., where are invasive algae, where can I best build underwater, what is the impact of a nearby construction site?). Many other types of visualizations and statistical summaries are possible.
How do we train the DiveRay technology
The DiveRay camera can be trained to recognize anything present on the seafloor, bottom of a lake, river bed etc. Training of the DiveRay is done via its intelligent software, and experts can weigh-in to train the DiveRay. To make sure the DiveRay is trained correctly, the training data is checked by a panel of experts from all around the world. Next to that, it is also possible to train the software by yourself without further input and create your own library.
Future
Currently, the DiveRay technology is operated by a diver, but in the future will be mountable on Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).
History
PlanBlue is a spin-off company from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPI-MM) in Bremen (Germany). At this institute, the ‘HyperDiver technology’ was developed by Dr. Arjun Chennu and colleagues, who utilized the technology to re-discover the seafloor by collecting new types of data, which allowed them to better answer scientific questions. With the support from an EXIST Start-up program, the Climate-KIC program and the MPI-MM, our team redeveloped the HyperDiver technology into a new and user-friendly product, the DiveRay (both hardware and software). We founded our company originally as ‘HyperSurvey’ in October 2017, but our company is now renamed to ‘PlanBlue’.