Building the Medusa 360

Having inspiring evidence of the wonders present in the deep sea is the best way to get the general public more aware of and interested in ocean exploration. Advances in consumer grade virtual reality headsets like Google Cardboard allow for immersive experiences and a unique way to engage the public in ocean exploration. It is in this context that the Medusa 360 camera was invented. During the spring of 2016, OceanGate Foundation held an academic challenge in partnership with Seattle Central College to create a camera suitable for collecting panoramic video from a submersible. The winning design is meant to be mounted on the Cyclops I, a submarine owned and operated by OceanGate, Inc. The MedusaCam360 was built using off-the-shelf electronic components, and integrates four Raspberry Pi cameras inside a clear acrylic pressure housing for less than $500. It is capable of recording time-lapse HD photos for four hours at 6 Hz, and is currently limited by battery life and hard drive size. We present test and calibration photos from the MedusaCam360 system and compare them to a commercially available Ricoh Theta S 360 camera.