OVAL has mounted a Pelco Spectra video camera where it can observe the Haro Strait. The camera is controlled by a RS422 protocol that conveys the location of an underwater sound source from the computer to the camera within ~1/2 second of the occurence of a localizable sound. The camera can turn from north to south in less than a half a second. The computer also puts the localization position on the video display so that observers of the video know what direction the camera is pointing.

Here are a couple of sample videos:

Container Ship (1 Mbyte)

The video camera followed this container ship for about 20 minutes as it sailed north in the Haro Strait. To localize a sound source, the sound must have short-term amplitude or frequency modulations that allow time delays to be determined by crosscorrelation.

Orca Whales (1.5 Mbyte)

On this passby the orcas (J-pod) were travelling north. You see a typical scene with whale-watch boats standing offshore. In this short scene the vocalizing orca is underwater in the center of the scene and then porpoises northward as the camera moves as successive calls are localized in real-time (~ a second delay between vocalization and camera repositioning). During this passby the orcas did not spy hop or breach.