title: Low altitude remote-sensing method to monitor marine and beach litter of various colors using a balloon equipped with a digital camera.
abstract: This study aims to establish a low-altitude remote sensing system for surveying litter on a beach or the ocean using a remote-controlled digital camera suspended from a balloon filled with helium gas. The resultant images are processed to identify the litter using projective transformation method and color difference in the CIELUV color space. Low-altitude remote sensing experimental observations were conducted on two locations in Japan. Although the sizes of the litter and the areas covered are distorted in the original photographs taken at various angles and heights, the proposed image process system is capable of identifying object positions with a high degree of accuracy (1-3 m). Furthermore, the color difference approach in the CIELUV color space used in this study is well capable of extracting pixels of litter objects of various colors allowing us to estimate the number of objects from the photographs.
authors.affiliation: Center for Marine Environmental Studies, Ehime University, 2-5 Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan. kako@ehime-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shin'ichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kako
authors.forename: Atsuhiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isobe
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Magome
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D001493:Bathing Beaches / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods*; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants