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Low-cost internet of things and snapshot geolocation pipeline in marine sensing

Publication . Pinto, Pedro José Gouveia; Radeta, Marko; Quintal, Filipe

Biologging and biotelemetry are commonly used as methods to assess marine biodiversity pop ulation. However, current state-of-the-art devices (commonly referred to as tags) remain at the greater cost of production while geolocation and georeferencing methods use proprietary satellite constellations, remain expensive and are prone to greater battery usage. This dissertation enhances such state-of-the-art devices, providing affordable tags for multipurpose usage. Dissertation contri bution is two-fold. In first, it describes the design of low-cost telecommunication system comprised from tag emitters and land receivers, evaluated during the sea-vessel field trips in pelagic area of Madeira island. In second, it also describes the software pipeline for deducing the position of tags, leveraging the raw signal from obtained GPS receivers.

2022-04-04Master thesis

Open access

MAR Gate: augmented reality for attracting wider audience to marine concerns

Publication . Teles, Jocelyne Estefania Pestana; Radeta, Marko

As condições nos ambientes marinhos permanecem angustiantes, pois as atividades humanas afetam a qualidade de vida das espécies marinhas. Uma das espécies que sente tais consequências é a Baleia Franca do Atlântico Norte, cuja saúde está em declíneo devido a ameaças passadas e presentes. Uma forma de chamar a atenção para os problemas ambientais marinhos é educando as pessoas, conectando-as a tais espécies, conscientizando-as e fazendo-as refletir sobre ações futuras. Esta dissertação apresenta a aplicação móvel de realidade aumentada, alavancando a interação sobre as Baleias Francas do Atlântico Norte (BFAN), educando os utilizadores sobre a sua contribução para ambientes marinhos, ameaças e curiosidades com essa interação. A dissertação relata o uso de tecnologias imersivas e aprendizagem móvel, fornecendo informações sobre as BFANs. Três estudos foram conduzidos em diferentes etapas do desenvolvimento da aplicação, em ambientes internos, externos e em praças públicas, estudando: (i) como a Realidade Aumentada pode influenciar os utilizadores, (ii) como o público entende as interações e (iii) quão eficaz é a AR para aprender em espaços públicos. Os estudos revelaram as seguintes respostas: (i) a Realidade Aumentada tem um impacto emocional nos utilizadores que pode ser positivo dependendo do tema abordado. A imersão e a absorção são elementos cruciais, e o ambiente externo, seja com sombra ou não, pode não influenciar significativamente na experiência. (ii) Os infográficos sem textos podem ser entendidos pelo público considerando dois factores: a clareza dos desenhos que representam os dados e o conjunto de conhecimentos da população-alvo. (iii) AR demonstra resultados positivos na educação dos utilizadores sobre as Baleias Francas do Atlântico Norte em espaços públicos.

2022-11-18Master thesis

Open access

Interactive geodesic structures for attracting wider audience to marine concerns

Publication . Abreu, Pedro Miguel Cabral; Radeta, Marko

Recent surveys indicate that there is a greater emotional disconnect between the European population and Europe’s aquatic environments [1]. Although a wider audience recognizes anthropogenic issues (i.e. litter pollution, overfishing, noise pollution, etc) where most people can feel connected to nature, however, they do not exhibit pro-environmental behaviors towards them. Interactive environ ments, which depict marine concerns, remain passive and informative, i.e. not being able to engage with the audience, failing to provide a long-term positive effect. This thesis explores the usage of geodesic structures in depicting marine concerns, exploring possible interactive environments among them in effort to increase the awareness of marine concerns. Dissertation performs five geodesic dome iterations and validations. In first, it studies the role of the open and porous geodesic structure, resembled as four marine species (seabird, sea turtle, dolphin and whale). In second, it enhances the first with the covers, studying more immersive experiences. Third setup contributed to the scaling-down of the geodesic dome marine species. Fourth setup showcased its deployment in wider public spaces. Fifth setup streamlined further the structures, so they can be used at diverse public spots. Two additional Augmented Reality modalites were used, with the former with interaction with the sea turtle and the latter, interacting with the whale.

2023-01-26Master thesis

Open access

Marine biodiversity assessments using aquatic internet of things

Publication . Martins, Carlos Diogo Félix; Radeta, Marko; Quintal, Filipe Magno de Gouveia

While Ubiquitous Computing remains vastly applied in urban environments, it is still scarce in oceanic environments. Current equipment used for biodiversity assessments remain at a high cost, being still inaccessible to wider audiences. More accessible IoT (Internet of Things) solutions need to be implemented to tackle these issues and provide alternatives to facilitate data collection in-the-wild. While the ocean remains a very harsh environment to apply such devices, it is still providing the opportunity to further explore the biodiversity, being that current marine taxa is estimated to be 200k, while this number can be actually in millions. The main goal of this thesis is to provide an apparatus and architecture for aerial marine biodiversity assessments, based on low-cost MCUs (Microcontroller unit) and microcomputers. In addition, the apparatus will provide a proof of concept for collecting and classifying the collected media. The thesis will also explore and contribute to the latest IoT and machine learning techniques (e.g. Python, TensorFlow) when applied to ocean settings. The final product of the thesis will enhance the state of the art in technologies applied to marine biology assessments.

2021-04-07Master thesis

Open access

Dashboard for collecting and depicting the marine megafauna presence

Publication . Aguiar, Paulo Filipe Nunes; Radeta, Marko; Quintal, Filipe Magno Gouveia

While more and more technologies and software are being created and applied for the ocean setting, most of them still remain at high cost, and hinder the data to wider public. Understanding the marine biodiversity can be achieved through numerous ways, however, there is a lack of consensus and operability when depicting the marine megafauna population. Moreover, Deep Learning (DL) techniques are becoming accessible to wider population, and there is a potential of exposing them to the marine biologists, involving them to participate in public web-based dashboards, depicting those data. This dissertation addresses such issues, by providing an interactive dashboard, capable of fa cilitating the classification, prediction and deeper analysis of marine species. Using the State of Art (SoA) Machine Learning (ML) techniques for image vision, and providing the interactive vi sualizations, this thesis seeks to provide a less cumbersome apparatus for marine biologists, who can participate further in data gathering, labelling, depicting, ecological modelling, and potential calls for action. In further, this dissertation document provides the aquatic dashboard functionality using Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) techniques and interactive means to ease the upload, clas sification, and visualization of collected marine taxa, with a case study on marine megafauna imagery (e.g. whales, dolphins, sea birds, seals and turtles). As it will be hereinafter described, marine biologists, as end users, will evaluate of the proposed dashboard.

2021-06-16Master thesis

Open access