Conventional mountain monitoring system usually uses a low resolution web camera or fixed DSLR. Because of these specifications it was difficult to acquire high resolution photos.
Kadinche in cooperation with National Institute for Environmental Studies Japan have developed a super high resolution mountain monitoring system using a robot head. The system consists of 2 cameras, 1 robot head, and 1 network connected computer as shown in an figure below.
The system first shoot a photo of mountain using camera No.1 with wide lens. This step executes weather decision module because in cloudy and rainy weather it is no use to shoot photos. If the weather is fine, camera No.2 shoots multiple photos using robot head. Since this camera No.2 is placed on a robot head, it can change its direction and take hundreds of photos with zoom lens. These multiple photos will be stitched together to a giga-pixel panorama photo. Taken data would be saved in online storage.
Our first working prototype is installed in Tateyama Murodou Mountain Lodge where you can have great views of Mt. Tateyama in Toyama prefecture Japan. The system takes photos every hour from sunrise to sunset and send data to online storage every night. You can see sample contents on this webpage.
Please feel free to contact us if you think the system is useful in your field or region. We would be more than happy to discuss on many kinds of potential applications using this super high resolution remote monitoring system.