[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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