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HydroColor: A Water Quality App for iOS

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HydroColor: A Water Quality App Analysis

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HydroColor is a specialized water quality application available for iPhone users, designed to assess the turbidity and reflectance of natural water bodies. By utilizing the iPhone camera, the app captures images of a gray card, sky, and water, which are essential for accurate analysis. It calculates key metrics such as turbidity (NTU), suspended particulate matter concentration, and backscattering coefficients. The app's interface is user-friendly, guiding users through the image collection process while leveraging the device's GPS, gyroscope, and compass for optimal results.

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Once images are collected, HydroColor provides immediate analysis, offering insights into water quality based on RGB reflectance values. The data, including measurement details like location and time, can be saved and accessed later or downloaded to a computer. The method employed by HydroColor is rooted in established scientific research, making it a valuable tool for environmental monitoring and study.

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Full Specifications

GENERAL
Release
Latest update
Version
2.4
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Platform
iOS
Operating System
iOS 16.4
POPULARITY
Total Downloads
15
Downloads Last Week
0
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Last Updated

Developer’s Description

By Thomas Leeuw
HydroColor is a water quality application that uses the iPhone camera to determine the reflectance of natural water bodies. Using this information,...
HydroColor is a water quality application that uses the iPhone camera to determine the reflectance of natural water bodies. Using this information, HydroColor can estimate water turbidity (0-80 NTU), concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) (g/m^3) and the backscattering coefficient in the red (1/m). IMPORTANT: HydroColor requires the use of an 18% photographers gray card as a reference. Gray cards are widely available at photography shops and online. Visit the supporting website for more information on gray cards.HydroColor has an easy to use interface that guides users through the collection of three images: a gray card image, a sky image, and a water image. To ensure the best results, HydroColor taps into the iPhones GPS, gyroscope, and compass to aid users in the collection of these images. After images are collected they can be analyzed immediately. In the analysis of the images, HydroColor calculates the reflectance of the water body in the RGB color channels of the camera. It then uses the reflectance values to determine the turbidity of the water in NTU (nephelometric turbidity units).The data is instantly saved and can be accessed again via HydroColor or downloaded onto a computer from the documents folder (accessible in iTunes). The text file contains additional information about the measurement including: latitude, longitude, date, time, sun zenith, sun azimuth, phone heading, phone pitch, exposure values, RGB reflectance, and turbidity. Additional water quality parameters (e.g. chlorophyll concentration) will be added to HydroColor as research continues. Proceeds from HydroColor will go toward developing additional algorithms for HydroColor and to creating additional Apps like HydroColor.How it works:HydroColor uses the iPhone camera as simple light sensor (photometer). Relative light intensity can be measured by normalizing the camera pixel values by the exposure. Therefore, the three color channels of the camera (RGB: Red, Green, Blue) provide a measure of light intensity in three regions of the visible spectrum. The light intensity measured in the water image is corrected for sky reflection off the surface (using the sky image). The corrected water image provides the intensity and color of light emanating from the water. This is normalized by the ambient illumination using the gray card image. The final product is a nearly illumination independent measure of the waters reflectance, known as remote sensing reflectance. In oceanography, satellites are used to calculate the same product (remote sensing reflectance) from space.The reflectance is directly related to the amount and type of suspended particles in the water. An increase in turbidly (i.e. suspended sediments) will cause greater scattering of light and increase the overall reflectance of the water. Particles containing pigments, such as phytoplankton (algae), will absorb light in specific regions of the visible spectrum. Thus, pigment containing particles can be detected by comparing the relative reflectance in the RGB channels.
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AI Assisted Content Disclosure

Content created and reviewed by Softonic with information obtained from Thomas Leeuw, using AI.

CNET's editorial team was not involved in the creation of this content. Opinions, analysis and reviews were not provided by CNET.