Hydroptic SARL products

The Shallow Underwater Vision Profiler or UVP (CNRS patent) is designed to study large (>100 µm) particles and zooplankton simultaneously and to quantify them in a known volume of water. The UVP system makes use of computerised optical technology with custom lighting to acquire digital images of zooplankton IN SITU down to depths of 600m.

The ZooSCAN (CNRS patent) system makes use of scanner technology with custom lighting and a watertight scanning chamber intowhich liquid zooplankton samples can be placed. The scanner recovers ahigh-resolution, digitial image and the sample can be recovered withoutdamage. (You can download an example image exactly as it was recovered here.)These digital images can then be investigated by computer processing.While the resolution of the digitized zooplankton images is lower thanthe image obtained using a binocular microscope this technique hasproved to be more than adequate for large sample sets.

The Underwater Vision Profiler or UVP (CNRS patent) is designed to study large (>100 µm) particles and zooplankton simultaneously and to quantify them in a known volume of water. The UVP system makes use of computerised optical technology with custom lighting to acquire digital images of zooplankton IN SITU down to depths of 6000m. The UVP5 acquires only in-focus images in a volume of water delimited by a light beam issued from red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in 100µs flashes. The typical light beam illuminates an area of 4x20 centimetres which gives a sampling volume of 1 litre per image. When interfaced with conventional CTD measuring devices, the distribution of particles and fauna can be displayed in real time integrated with the CTD metadata. The high-resolution digital image can then be processed by the computer.

The NEMO plankton bucket or `cod end` provides a definite improvement on existing plankton collection containers. Designed to be used with currently-available plankton nets it is composed of high-density polypropylene resistant to erosion and chemical degradation. All fittings are made of high quality stainless steel. The drainage port is designed so that the mesh may be easily changed so that it is sized to match the net mesh size. NEMO is ballasted for stability in the water. The stainless steel clips allow fast access to the plankton sample and provide a positive closure.