We’re excited to announce a new version of the Companion computer software is now available! This update adds a number of new features including a great new camera configuration page to adapt the camera settings to the underwater lighting conditions.
The update includes:
- Display CPU and RAM usage statistics on the System page
- Auto-detect and auto-connect to Water Linked Underwater GPS system
- Add option to change the static ip address of the ROV on the Network page
- Add support for Internet Explorer
- Camera configuration page: easily configure camera and video stream settings
Lighting conditions underwater are quite different than above water. The light that penetrates the surface is absorbed at different rates depending on the color. Here’s a neat plot from NOAA Ocean Explorer showing how far different colors penetrate the water. As you can see, blue and green tend to go the furthest whereas red is absorbed almost immediately.
Credit: NOAA OceanExplorer
That changes the way that things look underwater. As you descend underwater, red will disappear from the image first, changing the overall color of the image. To truly correct that, you need to add the light back into the scene by illuminating it with lights.
The new camera page lets you adjust the color and lighting settings to cope with the color changes and make the camera view look more natural. With the ability to save different profiles, you can make a profile for shallow water, deep water, low visibility, good visibility, etc.
Please check out the forum post here that details the update process and the changes. If you have any feedback or results, feel free to share.