HDTV on Tiburon
Project Manager/Lead Engineer: Mark Chaffey
Lead Scientist: Jim Barry

MBARI has been operating a state-of-the-art high definition television (HDTV) camera on ROV Ventana successfully for two years. During this time the high-resolution underwater images captured by this camera system have contributed significantly to MBARI’s research programs and produced results that were just not possible before from conventional cameras. The high quality frame grabs have been submitted for publication (including the cover of the 2000 MBARI annual report), used to measure properties such as the dissolution rates of CO₂, and are often exchanged with researchers at other institutions for individual biological species identification.

This proposal is a feasibility study to investigate and track HDTV camera technology in preparation for a proposal for an HDTV camera on the 4000 meter ROV Tiburon for 2003 that meets size and weight restrictions.