LASER PAUA MEASURER
THE
NEW ZEALAND PAUA...
...is a unique specie of abalone found only on the coast of New Zealand. Paua have a oval shaped shell with a large muscular foot inside the shell which is used to cling to rocks surrounded by seaweed which they feed on.
HOW IT WORKS
02
HARMLESS
Unlike traditional methods of measuring paua the koru paua tool is able to give you a reliable measurement without damaging the paua by removing it from the rock and wounding/potentially killing it. Because of the use of lasers, there is no contact with the paua meaning if it does not meet the legal size the young paua can be left undisturbed and healthy, which in the long term will boost paua numbers.
03
EASY
The koru paua tool has been designed and programmed to the specification that it must be able to be used by your everyday New Zealander as the majority of paua divers are just your average Joe. My stakeholders have ensured that this is true as they have been testing my current prototypes for usability.
01
FAST
Measuring the length of paua to check its legality has never been faster, just hover above the paua and line up the lasers on each end of the paua. In real time the tool with display the size of the paua and you will then be able to remove the paua from the rock if it meets the legal size.
WHY IS IT
IMPORTANT
​
CULTURE
The ocean holds particular importance to New Zealanders as 75% of us live within 10kms of the coast and 96.6% live within 50 kms. Historically the ocean has been a very important food source for Maori tribes that lived near the ocean. It has been used to feed families for generations and still today we are very closely involved with the marine environment. For New Zealanders, it is part of our culture to gather food from the ocean as this is our right to take from the sea as long as we follow the rule and regulations that are set to protect our marine species.
PROBLEM
The problem with the current method of gathering paua is that divers must remove the paua from the rock with a knife in order to measure it, and because paua are haemophiliacs therefore are unable to clot blood, so the cuts made by the knife will always result in the paua bleeding to death. Therefore we are accidentally killing paua as we remove them from the rock to measure them. If we continue with this traditional method we will find the population of these much-loved paua will further decline. So we are in the position where if nothing is done the culture of paua diving will come to an end as the fisheries are forced to ban paua diving in order to restore the paua numbers.
SOLUTION
The solution is through the use of the Koru Paua Tool, as using it to measure the paua instead of removing the paua from the rock, will decrease the amount of paua being killed a year. As more and more people start using the harmless laser technology less and less paua will be killed incidentally, resulting in better paua numbers the following year and more years to come. The laser technology will restore
paua number within a few years as it will eliminate the possibility of paua being wounded/killed when being measured.
THE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE TO GATHERING PAUA
MEET MITCHELL
MY STORY
Born and raised in a small town south of Dunedin called Balclutha, I grew up wanting to be a builder much like the other kids there. That was until I was introduced to the power of computers during my first year of high school. I was amazed by their endless capabilities and I started making websites and learning code as another form of language. Yet computer programs were still limited to the monitor and keyboard. A website can't turn a light on and off or measure the distance away from an object, therefore I started searching for technologies that could combine programming and the physical world. This was at the time I found the Arduino Uno, a programmable microcontroller with digital pins for turning on LEDs and reading sensors. From there I brought together, my background of building and my knowledge of programming, to build electronic embedded systems that make improvements in people's lives.
MY VISION
Being an outdoors guy, I spend a lot of my time hunting and fishing around the local area. One my favorite types of fishing is paua diving. It's just part of my culture gathering paua and where I'm from paua diving is very popular and because of that fisheries have rules and laws in place to help protect the unique abalone species. The only problem is there needs to be a method of measuring these vulnerable paua without damaging them, as explained in the previous section. Willing to take on a challenge I started brainstorming and made a list of specifications, now I spend my design manufacturing class in high school researching, designing, programming, prototyping and testing to develop a device that can be used to measure and gather paua in a more sustainable way, in the hope that it will restore paua numbers and keep the culture of paua diving alive.
MY TECHNOLOGY
The technology I have developed is an array of lasers that are addressed by the microcontroller which scans through then in order to measure the size of paua without disturbing them. I have developed plenty of different prototypes in the search for the most accurate yet affordable product and now I feel I have discovered the perfect ratio of accurate and price. My latest prototype is proof that this technology can be used to measure paua, as tests have shown its accuracy is down to 2mm. I have looked into shrinking the prototypes size and enclosing it in an acrylic tube to test its accuracy underwater, but first I must finish testing the acrylic tubes refractive index so that I can calibrate for that, to ensure that the paua measurer delivers the same amount of accuracy as out of water.
RECREATIONAL
NON-INVASIVE LEGAL SIZE CHECK
CURRENT PROTOTYPE
Measuring the paua
In school workshop uploading new sketches to microcontroller
I'm currently working on redefining my proof of concept prototype by making it more compact to incorporate a waterproof housing with magnetic reed switches
Below is a slideshow including pictures of my most recent prototype
PROOF OF CONCEPT
A big part of working on electronic embedded systems is the soldering of wires
Testing proof of concept prototype for bugs in software, by testing on possible button commands
In school workshop uploading new sketches to microcontroller
A big part of working on electronic embedded systems is the soldering of wires
My most recent prototype is a proof of concept that demonstrates how the laser technology is able to read the paua without disturbing them. Using this prototype to test the accuracy of the lasers measurement and gather feedback from the stakeholders.
Below is a slideshow including pictures of the proof of concept prototype
PREVIOUS PROTOTYPES
Testing in ocean
Measuring the distance between to laser using ultrasonic sensor and trigonometry
The 3D printer just off my left shoulder
Testing in ocean
Throughout the year I have been working on many proofs of concept prototypes, such as the ones that use ultrasonic technology and trigonometry.
Below is a slideshow including pictures of my past prototypes
MY
STAKEHOLDERS
Kathleen Hepburn
Head of Technology
South Otago High School
Stephen Newnham
Technology Teacher
South Otago High School
Richard Hurring
Chairman of the Recreational paua reseeding group