[Coral-List] frame grabbing software

Steve Dalton sdalton at nmsc.edu.au
Mon Jun 19 20:11:09 EDT 2006


Hi Tamsen, in regards to frame grabbing software I may be no help, I have 
been using Imovie and final cut pro which can grab images however the 
resolution in not great and find that using the digital video and pausing 
the file is a better method to determine benthic cover.  I have been using 
the method described in Page et al. 2001 Survey of benthic reef communities 
using underwater video, Australian Institute of Marine Science, which 
assigns five random point on the screen and by stopping the tape or 
downloaded file 60 time throughout a 30 metre transect I record three 
hundred points per transect.  While watching the video on a high definition 
LCD screen I have a program called coral point count with excel extension 
(CPCe) running on a laptop and record the benthic categories underlying 
each point into individual cpc files.  The program determines descriptive 
statistic on benthic categories that were assigned to the benthic category 
code file.  I have found this method the be cost and time efficient and if 
you are having problems with determining the organisms underlying a point 
whilst paused you can move the image forward a frame or two to get a 
clearer image.  You can get the CPC free by emailing Kevin Kohler 
(kevin at nova.edu) from Nova Southern University Oceanographic Centre.  The 
program is great once you have assigned the benthic categories you 
need.  If you are to use this program whilst determining benthic point on a 
video transect you need to set up dummy images for each transect which are 
opened up one at a time and random points assigned to each image, although 
the benthic categories are determined on the video tape image and not the 
stills image.  If you want to use stills of the digital video transect you 
can take grabs using the capture card on the digital video recorder.  Not 
sure on the resolution of these images will be determined by the camera used.

Hope this helps

Steven Dalton
PhD student
University of New England
NMSC Postgraduate Representative
National Marine Science Centre
Bay Drive, Charlesworth Bay
(PO Box J321)
Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia 2450
Ph: 6648 3928
Mob: 0432 946 782
sdalton at nmsc.edu.au





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