Frederick Feraco, Research Science Teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station, New York, happens to be a reef geek. A strong supporter of the Long Island Reef Association (LIRA), he also happens to have a knack for innovation. Recently, he saw a need and set out to fill it via his company, Feraco Media Inc.
As the innovator of the AI Reef Cam for iOS, Feraco created an inexpensive app that allows reefkeepers to “remove the Windex” from their tanks when capturing videos or images with their Apple devices. Instead of relying on physical orange filters that cannot be adjusted, only swapped for a different shade, Feraco’s new app takes a fundamentally different approach to the problem of wrangling excessive blue light, filtering it out programmatically and restoring balance.
First, watch the AI Reef Camp app in action!
More from the Developer
Feraco acknowledges that he is not the first to come up with the idea of addressing this blue-light problem with modern reef aquarium lighting. “There a are a few other apps that help [filter] the blue light to take a photo,” wrote Feraco. “I wanted to build off of that because of the custom photos we wanted to take in the coral lab [at Walt Whitman High School]. I just released this in January and have been updating it and improving it based on user feedback.”
What can AI Reef Cam do? Feraco explains that his app “gives you the ability to create your own custom live filters to block blue light and enhance the lighting of your photos and videos. The app also gives the user the ability to measure light intensity in Lux and PAR, based on the lights you are using. The last big feature of the app is a marine fish species identification function that [utilizes] machine learning. The marine fish species identification feature is still experimental”, he explained, “but when used correctly it will identify a marine fish species.”
Feraco notes that AI Reef Cam is compatible with all iOS devices; iPads and iPhones. “I am hoping in the future to make it available for Android devices. If you like the app, a positive review on the App Store would really help me out. I will also be sending out a new update to fine-tune filter settings. I just want to thank everyone in the aquarium industry that has inspired me to create and build something original.”
The AI Reef Cam app is currently just $0.99 in the App Store.
UPDATE – Feraco has uploaded an AI Reef Cam Tutorial – Watch Now!
