Coral reefs form one of the most diverse ecosystems on our planet. To protect the reefs from further damage from human carelessness, designer Derek Bennion has conceived the Coral Rasa. It’s a digital monitoring device specially formulated to observe the condition under the sea. The device can prove to be of tremendous help for a variety of reasons help owing to its both visual and audible monitoring assistance.
Motorola Coral Rasa by Derek Bennion can ease the situation greatly to convey public consciousness to the importance of coral reefs and their recent situation. Derek is final year student for Industrial Design, from College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. The Coral Rasa project took shape when he participated for the Motorola Sponsored Studio – Fall 2010, for the Environmental group. His project to design a monitoring device for the coral reefs won huge accolades and the first place in the competition. The name was inspired by the Great Barrier Reefs in Indonesia, which is also the largest system of coral reefs.
Rasa in Indonesian language means sense. The device consists of three parts: the base which is made as a tri-spiked leg to anchor well on the oceanic bed, the body which houses the battery and the hard drive, and the head which houses the hydrophone, camera, lens, water sampling tray, water tester, light housing, LED and the buoy.
The camera mounted on the device rotates at a 360 degree angle to gain complete access to its surroundings. It records one hour of footage a day for three weeks and broadcasts eight hours of footage a day over the web. The camera shuts down during the night. The water sampling tray rotates once around each day to accommodate a new sample every time and tests for herbicides, pesticides, nutrient, fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphorus, and oil. The hydrophone is used to pick up the acoustics in the surrounding coral reef areas. This allows the user to determine the species living in the area and their traffic movement each day. The Coral Rasa is coated by thermo chromic paint to sensitize it to the coral bleaching process. It will show a change in color to help adopt remedial measures sooner than otherwise was possible.
The product is expected to be of great use for environmental organizations, community groups, or even local government who realize the importance to protect coral reefs.
Via: Tuvie
