Underwater Image Systems Simulation

We use modern computer graphics tools such as ray-tracing, digital camera simulation tools, and a physically accurate model of seawater constituents to simulate how light is captured by the imaging sensor in a digital camera placed in underwater ocean environments. Our water model includes parameters for the type and amount of phytoplankton, the concentration of chlorophyll, the amount of dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and the concentration of detritus (non-algal particles, NAP). We show that by adjusting the model parameters, we can predict real sensor data captured by a digital camera at a fixed distance and depth from a reference target with known spectral reflectance. We also provide an open-source implementation of all our tools and simulations.