MARLIN - 2.009

Over the course of my senior fall, I had the incredible opportunity to complete my senior capstone in 2.009, the Product Engineering Process. As one of two system integrators on my team, I helped lead Pink Team to create MARLIN, which stands for Marine Augmented Reality Lens Imaging Nexus: an underwater vision enhancement system designed for commercial divers operating in high-turbidity, low-light situations, where lack of visibility could be life-threatening. MARLIN is a waterproof aluminium “box” that attaches to the outside of the industry-standard Kirby Morgan helmet, housing two cameras, a 2K-resolution screen, and two Fresnel lenses that allow the diver to view the screen without eye strain. The cameras send video feed up a signal supply cable to a computer handled by the topside operator, where the footage is processed using a dehazing algorithm and sent back down to the screen in a matter of milliseconds, allowing the diver to see enhanced video feed of their surroundings in real time. Being system integrator for this project involved overseeing all subteams, coordinating interfaces, and ensuring we overcame the many engineering challenges that arose: designing an “augmented reality” system that projected the virtual image at an appropriate size and distance, writing image-processing code optimized for real-time video analysis, testing our system for the harsh conditions it would have to withstand, streamlining our electrical cables for our signal supply line, and much, much more. I had the incredible honor of being chosen by my team to present our project to the MIT community at the 2.009 showcase.