CoastalCOMS

Agnes Water, Australia, Sept 5, 2010: News Mail

SURFERS and beachgoers could soon check out the swell in Bargara and Agnes Water from the comfort of their own homes if a plan for 24-hour online camera monitoring goes ahead.

Surf Life Saving Queensland Wide Bay Capricorn regional manager Craig Holden said initial assessments had been carried out on Kelly’s Beach, Bargara, and Main Beach in Agnes Water to determine their suitability for continuous video monitoring systems. Read more »

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• Supercharge Applications and Websites with Real Time Wave Data

Source: Brisbane Times, QLD, Australia

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CoastalCOMS announced today that they have signed a deal with Big Orange Dot LLC to provide camera services and wave data processing for surf.Solspot.com. The resulting camera network will be the first ’sensing’ HD wave cameras in the US to process video and utilize video analysis for live measurements of surf heights and wave conditions at surf breaks in Southern California.
Read more »

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Using mobile tower systems and HD surveillance cameras CoastalCOMS broadcast live vision and breaking wave heights during the Annual Lifeguard National Championships earlier this month.

This broadcast was unique as it showcased the ability to publish high quality, HD content from lifeguard surveillance camera systems to the web, with integration of real time data as video images of the surf zone were processed in real time during the contest.

For more information on the Lifeguard Nationals visit the USLA website, or USLANationals.org.

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CoastalCOMS’ system for assessing wave break zone locations and measurement of breaking wave heights and periods is presented in a recently published paper by Chris Lane, General Manager of Research and Development, and his associates. Waves are measured across the surfzone using a digital video sequence, and, using low mounted video cameras installations the Wave Pack system aims to provide real-time measurement of breaking and re-breaking waves in the surfzone.  The Wave Pack system has proven to be a reliable and robust way in which to gather data on wave characteristics over a wide range of wave conditions.

Chris Lane, General Manager of Research and Development of CoastalCOMS is presenting this paper at the 2010 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium in Hawaii next week.

To see this paper, please click here.

View presentation poster, please click here.

For more information on the IEEE IGARSS, go to http://www.igarss10.org/.

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Oahu’s Ocean Safety Division is going mobile this summer. Two wireless, remote deployable camera units will be stationed at beaches around the island on an as needed basis, giving ocean lifeguards immediate access to vision and information via CoastalCOMS hosted surveillance networks.

Mobile Beach Monitoring and Surveillance Unit

FEATURES INCLUDE:

• 3G/4G Connectivity via USB Modem
• Supports Sprint, ATT, Verizon, and Other Carriers
• Standard and High-Definition Camera Options
• Amplified VoIP Loudspeaker supports prerecorded or live broadcast from anywhere (headquarters, substations, etc)
• Support for AC Charging, even on Solar Units
• Solar Powered Options
• Battery Operation for Short Deploys

SUPPORTED COASTALCOMS DATA SERVICES:

• Real-Time Wave Height and Period
• People Counting by Beach Area
• Recordings to 365 days with Terabytes of Network Storage Available
• Scheduled Video Loop or Image Recording
• Live Images/Video for Web

Of note, the units are preprogrammed and support “drop-in deployment” – meaning video is instantly available in headquarters and on other substation or mobile displays when the unit powers on. This makes it possible to trailer mount or truck mount the unit, roll out to a beach, and immediately have full surveillance systems and public address systems in place.

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Thermal and Infrared imaging systems allow for more than just ’seeing’ at night for security purposes, and we’ve taken one of our mobile camera towers for a roll on local beaches here in Southern California to illustrate the point.

Recently Bill Klink, Vice President of Flir’s security and surveillance business unit discussed the challenge of supporting video analytics with thermographic images and video when tracking transient things like moving people or animals in environments where virtually everything in view is in motion. This problem is clearly illustrated when monitoring the beach for people who have entered the water, yet Flir infrared technology allows for tuning imagery to clearly depict people engaged in various activities within the surf zone. Read more »

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UPDATE 3/29/10: CoastalCOMS Grunion Coverage in the Orange County Register

UPDATE 3/17/10: Video of Strong Run at Doheny Beach, CA

The CoastalCOMS team is operating a multi-camera, mobile, beach camera unit this spring and recording late into the night in hopes of ‘catching’ local fish.   We’ve coordinated our efforts with local grunion experts, and our goal is to provide thermal and low lux video and images of the beach and surf zones to those interested in the annual grunion runs along the California coast.

While it’s understood the fish themselves don’t produce a heat signature, thermal imaging may be useful for viewing the water and beach areas in which these fish are spawning.  By looking for patterns in the sand with thermal cameras and comparing with imaging from low lux or infrared video cameras, we expect we’ll be able to provide indications of fish and wildlife activities and human interactions/impacts during the spawning events. Read more »

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With the myriad of offerings on the market for video surveillance and digital cameras systems that allow remote control and vision, it’s easy to think popping in a few cameras for your beach environment is simple. You need only click the “one-click-buy” button at one of the many discount camera vendors then get your maintenance guy to plug it in. Right?

Not necessarily.  The relative ease of installation for digital video cameras often disguises the more daunting task of making the camera systems useful as more than a picture, especially if you’re on a budget or have a focused goal in mind such as drowning ‘prevention’ instead of drowning “recording”.

In this article I’d like to give a few quick examples of how even the seemingly simple act of camera placement can impact the long-term value of a camera purchased in support of lifeguarding and public safety. Read more »

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“Old guys” remember when surf cameras started showing up in the mid-1990’s and changed the way we surfed world wide, from drive-to-get-skunked to “drive down the line”. Our core team members were there, pushing the technology because we knew the impact would equal more time in the water and better quality waves. Sixteen years later and our goal of providing cutting edge online toolsets remains the same.

The future of surf cameras.

Today the Coastalwatch team is proud to announce the evolution of the surf cam, with the release of CoastalCOMS WavePak software. WavePak reports information like breaking wave size, wave period, and set timings directly from camera video, in real-time, giving surfers the first real-time breaking wave reporting toolset on the planet. It’s live today for Gold Coast, Australia beaches on Coastalwatch.com Read more »

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