Innovation Anthology #72: Professor
Once again, Dr. Craig Coburn has reached for his roll of duct tape and crafted some fancy equipment to carry out his research at the University of Lethbridge.
What he needed was an infrared remote sensing system to do aerial surveys of cottonwoods along the Oldman and St. Mary rivers. But instead of the $50,000 price tag, Dr. Coburn’s creation only cost $500.
DR. CRAIG COBURN: Well it’s a series of old surveillance cameras. They’re infrared sensitive cameras. They’re video cameras that I actually bought off e-bay, E-bay is wonderful for scientists. And combined that with a homebuilt computer, and we’ve got that mounted inside an airplane There’s a little bit of duct tape in the system, as always, but there’s lots of bungee cords. And we store the whole thing in an old milk crate that rides where the passenger seat should go in the airplane.
These sensitive cameras are very good at distinguishing different colours.
In the fall, Dr. Coburn captures images of the cottonwoods below as he flies over riparian zones.
The leaves on some trees turn colour before others, and this is helping his research to assess the health of trees along rivers that have dams and flow controls.
Thanks today to The University of Lethbridge.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Lee Barbour PhD,
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, lee.barbour@usask.ca
Sponsor
University of Lethbridge
In 2007 The University of Lethbridge celebrated its 40th anniversary. The U of L campus is home to the world renowned Canadian Centre for Behavioral Neuroscience. The University is also a centre of expertise on water and remote sensing.
For more interviews with University of Lethbridge researchers, check out the website for Innovation Alberta. (2001-2008)
Program Date: 2007-10-04