Dropcam Telemetry Viewer v2.29

Instructions & Guide

A community tool for underwater survey, sighting documentation, and marine biosecurity reporting — built for the protection of Aotearoa's coastal waters.

Author: Steve Harris · Developed for AAT NZ (Advanced Aquarium Technologies)

System Overview

The Dropcam Survey System has three parts:

A 3D-printed dropcam housing — the STL file is available for download from the viewer's front page.
An action camera — GoPro, DJI Action, SJCam, or similar. The camera must be able to display a live timestamp watermark on the recorded video — this is how we sync footage to GPS. Anything with the GoPro-style 2-prong mount in a waterproof case rated to 20 m will work.
Two apps used as part of the workflow:
- Dropcam GPS Wrapper for Android — the AAT-supported mobile field app for recording GPS tracks and sharing recorded surveys from a phone.
- Dropcam Telemetry Viewer (dropcam.aat.nz) — used after the survey to synchronise footage, mark sightings, and submit reports.

The workflow is simple: record video underwater, record your movement with GPS, then synchronise and review both together later. Desktop/laptop is still best for detailed review, while Android phone mode supports field map use, live position, recorded-track sharing, and loading shared surveys through the AAT wrapper app.

Mobile support: The AAT field app is currently Android-only. iPhone users can still record a GPX track with a normal GPX recorder and review it later in the browser, but the AAT wrapper app and its one-tap survey sharing workflow are not available on iOS yet.

Printing the Dropcam Housing

The dropcam housing is 3D-printed and designed to hold a standard action camera in its own waterproof case. Schools, libraries, and makerspaces are perfect places to get access to a printer if you don't have one.

What You'll Need

A 3D printer with PLA or PETG filament
The .stl file (download from the viewer header)

Print Settings

Setting	Value
Material	PLA or PETG
Nozzle	0.4 mm
Layer height	0.3 mm
Infill	35%
Orientation	Print standing upright
Parts	Main body and bottom screw printed separately

3D-printed dropcam housing with camera mounted

The dropcam housing with an action camera fitted — sinkers sit inside the cylindrical section.

The base screw may be tight at first — this is normal. Gently work it back and forth a few times before your first use. Use the nut and finger screw from the camera's own mount to secure the camera inside the housing.

Preparing the Dropcam

The dropcam needs to sink steadily and stay vertical. Place old fishing sinkers inside the cylindrical section of the housing to achieve this. Tie your main line to the top attachment point and run a safety loop through the hole in the fin — this prevents accidental loss if something comes loose.

Protect your gear: If you lose your camera, that's on you — so take precautions. Always have a secondary connection between your line and the housing or camera. Stay clear of foul lines, avoid snagging on weed or reef systems, and only touch the bottom lightly — never drag along the seabed. If there is a red Controlled Area Notice in place, avoid contact with the bottom entirely.

Before your first survey, test the fully assembled dropcam in a bucket or shallow water. Confirm it sinks smoothly, stays upright, and doesn't leak.

Camera Setup

The housing fits GoPro, DJI Action, and SJCam-sized action cameras — any camera with the GoPro-style 2-prong mount in a waterproof case rated to 20 m will work. The key requirement is that the camera must support a live timestamp watermark burnt into the video — this is how we sync footage to your GPS track. Most default camera presets are fine beyond that — resolution and frame rate aren't critical.

Important: Enable the timestamp watermark in your camera settings, set the correct date and time — to the second — and confirm the timestamp is visible on a test recording before heading out. The closer your camera time is to your phone time, the easier syncing will be.

Before heading out, fully charge the camera, make sure you have enough storage for continuous video, and give the lens a good clean.

Using the Dropcam

A hand line works best, though a short stiff boat rod is also fine. Braid or nylon — either will do. Avoid long, flexible rods as they make control harder.

Video Tips from the Field:

Before dropping the camera in the water, do a slow pan around the area. That extra footage is useful later when reviewing and confirming location.
Take a short video of your phone screen and make sure the time, especially the seconds, is clearly visible. This gives you a solid cross-check when syncing the video during review. Thanks Matt from MPI for that one.
Try to stay at around 0.5 km/h. Once you move much faster, the footage becomes harder to review properly.
DJI footage can be useful for aerial surveys, especially along coastlines.
The system also works well for diver and snorkeller surveys where the diver records the video and the mobile phone or GPS recording stays in a float boat directly above them.
Shoreline surveys above water can also be recorded in the same system for logging sightings.

How to Deploy

Lower the dropcam slowly and steadily — avoid swinging.
Touch the seabed gently so you know the depth, then lift the camera about 1 m off the bottom.
Try to maintain roughly 1 m altitude as you drift or move to the next position — about 1–2 minutes of travel.
Touch the bottom briefly every 1–2 minutes just to confirm you're still close, then lift back up.
Avoid repeatedly bouncing off the seabed — each hit shakes the camera and the footage wobbles so much you can't see anything useful during review.

Dropcam being lowered into the water from a boat

Lowering the dropcam over the side — slow and steady gets the best footage.

Touching the bottom briefly does not appear to fragment Caulerpa. Avoid rocky reefs or heavy seaweed areas to reduce snag risk.

Care & Maintenance

A little care after each use will keep your dropcam in good shape for years.

Rinsing After Use

Always rinse the dropcam thoroughly with fresh water after every outing — saltwater accelerates corrosion and can cause the screw base to seize. Pay attention to the threads, line attachment point, and any hardware. Let it dry fully before storing.

Caulerpa biosecurity — clean, dry, don't spread: If there is any chance you have been in an area with Caulerpa, treat your gear as potentially contaminated. Add a generous dose of dishwashing liquid or household bleach to your rinse water and soak for a few minutes before rinsing clean. Do not transfer gear between waterways without decontaminating first.

Weights Housing

Empty the sinkers out after each use and give the inside a good rinse. Sand is the main thing to clear out — it can carry contamination (including Caulerpa fragments), and wet sand trapped inside will smell quickly. Shake out every last bit, rinse thoroughly, and store dry with the sinkers removed. Salt water and grit left sitting inside will also degrade the plastic over time.

Checking for Wear

Before each outing, give the housing a quick once-over:

Check the screw base threads for wear or cracks — this is the most stressed part of the housing.
Look for cracks or stress fractures around the line attachment point and fin.
Check where the camera mount interfaces with the housing — repeated insertion and removal can cause fatigue over time.
Inspect anywhere the housing has taken an impact.

Repairs

Small cracks and splits are easy to fix before they become big ones:

Handheld 3D extruder pen — the best option for PLA/PETG repairs. Run matching filament into the crack and smooth it while warm. Strong, flexible, and waterproof.
5-minute Araldite (epoxy) — good for structural repairs, especially around attachment points and threads. Mix and apply to a clean, dry surface.
Superglue (cyanoacrylate) — ideal for fine cracks and hairline splits. Wick it into the crack, hold firmly for 60 seconds. Not recommended for load-bearing joints on its own.

If the housing is badly cracked or the screw thread has failed, it's easier to just print a new one — the STL is free and a replacement prints in a few hours.

Recording GPS

You'll need a GPS track for the survey. The preferred AAT workflow is to use the Dropcam GPS Wrapper on an Android phone. It records GPS inside the same Dropcam viewer workflow, keeps the GPS service alive while the screen is locked, and can share the recorded survey to your desktop computer for video review.

Android — AAT Dropcam GPS Wrapper

Download the Android APK from the Dropcam front page or directly here: dropcamwrapper-1.4.apk. This app is installed directly from AAT's website, not from the Play Store.

On the Android phone, open dropcam.aat.nz and download the APK.
Tap the downloaded APK. Android may ask you to allow installs from your browser or file manager. Choose Settings, enable Allow from this source, then return and install.
Open Dropcam GPS.
Grant location permission. If Android offers it, choose Allow all the time for best screen-off recording reliability.
Grant notification permission on Android 13+ and accept the battery-optimisation exemption prompt if shown.
Wait until the live position marker appears and the app has a GPS lock before you start the survey.

Android only at this stage: The AAT wrapper app currently supports Android phones only. iPhone can still be used with a separate GPX recorder, but there is no AAT iOS wrapper app yet.

Recording and sharing a field survey with the wrapper

Start the action camera recording before the first drop. Make sure the camera timestamp watermark is visible.
On the Android phone, open Dropcam GPS. The app loads the Dropcam viewer in map-only mode and connects to the phone GPS through the local wrapper.
Tap Record Track before or just as you begin surveying. The label changes to Recording... and the point count starts increasing.
Keep the phone with the survey team or in a dry bag on the boat. The wrapper keeps recording while the screen is locked.
If you need a field sighting photo, use the on-screen Add Sighting button while live GPS is available. On supported Android phones, the Volume-Down button also opens the field sighting flow while the app is foregrounded.
When you are finished, tap the recording control again to pause it. The label changes to Paused.
Tap Share Survey. Enter the operator email if prompted. The app uploads a lightweight survey package and shows a share link/QR code.
On your desktop or laptop, open the share link. The recorded GPX track, any field sightings, and survey metadata load into the desktop viewer.
Load the action-camera video on the desktop, then sync the visible video timestamp to the GPX track time. From there you can mark sightings, add transects/boundaries, and send the report.

iPhone

Gaia GPS is a good free option from the App Store. Other apps like GPX Master, Footpath Route Planner, or MotionX-GPS should also work as long as they can export a GPX file, though these haven't been tested. This is a fallback GPX-file workflow; the AAT wrapper application is Android-only for now.

Other Android GPX Apps

If you do not use the AAT wrapper, Geo Tracker is a workable fallback from the Play Store. Export the GPX after the survey and load it manually into the desktop viewer.

Recommended Settings

Recording interval: 1 second
Distance filter: 0.5 m
All other defaults are fine

When to Start and Stop

If you're launching from a kayak, paddleboard, or beach — start recording before you launch and keep the phone in a dry bag. From a larger boat, start recording just before your first drop. Leave GPS running throughout your survey — multiple dropcam locations are fine.

The rule is simple: as long as GPS is recording while you're recording video, you're good. Multiple dropcam locations are fine — you can define your transects later in the app during the review.

After your survey, export the GPX file via email, cloud, or USB. You'll need it on a laptop or desktop later.

Using the Dropcam Telemetry Viewer

This is where everything comes together. Open the viewer in your web browser at dropcam.aat.nz — Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari all work fine. No installation needed.

Try it before you go. Sample files are available on the home page — download a sample GPX and video and load them into the viewer to explore the controls before you head out. The files are unrelated to each other, the timestamp and location are not real, and no actual sightings were recorded. They exist purely so you can get hands-on with the tool and build confidence before your first real survey.

1. Load Your Files

Click or drag your video file into the video drop zone, and your GPX track into the GPX drop zone. If you recorded with a DJI drone, you can load an SRT file instead of a GPX — see below.

You can load the video or GPS track first. Once both are present, the viewer tries to align them automatically from embedded video telemetry and timestamps, the MP4 creation time, or a recognised date-and-time filename. It accepts a genuine overlap — the video and GPX do not have to start or finish together.

Dropcam Telemetry Viewer with video, map, and sightings panel

The viewer layout — video on the left, map on the right, sightings panel below.

DJI Embedded Telemetry and SRT Import

When you load a DJI MP4 or LRF, the viewer checks the media itself for recorded GPS, altitude, camera settings, timestamps, gimbal yaw, and aircraft yaw. When present, this embedded data helps align the footage and supplies the camera heading shown in the map Info box and saved with sightings.

You can also use the .SRT subtitle file generated beside many DJI videos as the primary track: drag or click the GPX drop zone and select the .srt file. The viewer converts its GPS, altitude, timestamps, and any recorded yaw into telemetry. Keep the SRT when one is available — it remains a useful fallback when the media does not contain recognised embedded telemetry.

Where to find the SRT file: DJI drones save an .srt file with the same name as the video in the same folder on the SD card. Copy it with the video when available. For the current survey workflow, continue loading a GPX or DJI SRT as the primary track; embedded media telemetry enriches that track and helps with alignment and heading.

Camera heading: The viewer prefers embedded gimbal yaw, then aircraft yaw, then embedded media direction, and finally direction derived from the synced GPS track. If roughly 10 accepted GPS positions stay within about 1 metre, the track direction is treated as stale rather than presenting an old heading as current.

2. Sync Video with GPS

First let auto-sync try. It can use embedded DJI timestamps and GPS, the MP4 creation time, or filenames such as 20260308_121947A.mp4, DJI_20260807155511_0040_D.MP4, and 2026-05-02 12.50.10.mp4. Filename dates are treated as New Zealand local recording time. When the GPX is longer than the video — or the video begins before the GPX — only the real overlapping period has a map position; the viewer does not invent a first or last GPS fix outside the recorded track.

If auto-sync cannot find a reliable match, or the position looks wrong, the manual controls remain available. Scrub to a frame where you can read the video clock or recognise a known event, align the GPX Position, then click Sync Files. Use Unsync Files whenever you want to discard the automatic alignment and set it again yourself.

Tip: At the beginning and end of each video drop, do a slow pan of your surroundings above the waterline. This gives you a recognisable reference point you can match against the map and GPX track when syncing — it makes dialling in the correct time much easier.

Extra cross-check: If you filmed your phone screen before the drop, use the visible seconds on the phone clock to double-check that the time shown in the video matches the GPX time you are syncing against.

Match the clock in the video to the GPX time — then hit Sync & Play.

2a. Timelapse Sync Mode

Continuous-record footage uses the standard Video sync above — one anchor point, video time runs at the same rate as real time. For timelapse footage (where real elapsed time runs faster than video time, e.g. one frame per second compressed into a fast playback), switch the Video / Timelapse toggle in the middle player-controls row (next to Sync Files and the ⇅ arrow).

Timelapse mode reveals an anchor strip with Set A, Set B, a rate readout, and Clear. Two anchors are required:

Scrub to a recognisable point early in the clip, position the GPX scrubber to match, then click Set A.
Scrub to a recognisable point much later in the clip, align the GPX scrubber, then click Set B.
Click Sync Files — the rate readout shows how many seconds of real time pass per second of video.

Switching back to Video mode drops to a single anchor at rate 1.0 (the viewer asks for confirmation if you already have sightings recorded at a non-1.0 rate).

Tip: Pick anchors at the start and end of the clip wherever possible — a longer span between A and B gives a more accurate rate.

2b. Multi-Video Surveys

If your survey spans several videos in a row, you don't need to re-sync from scratch each time. When you load the next video into the same survey, the viewer looks at the most recent synced video that sorts just before the new file and pre-positions the GPX scrubber at its end time. A toast prompts you to confirm — press Sync Files (or Apply Anchors in timelapse mode) once and you're done.

If the previous video was in Timelapse mode at a non-1.0 rate, the new video starts in Timelapse mode with that rate seeded — adjust if needed.

Per-video sync state is also remembered in your browser, keyed to the GPX track. If you reload the page or come back later with the same GPX, your video sync entries restore automatically — unless you've already started a new survey, which takes priority. Full Reset clears the remembered state.

3. Add Transects (Optional)

You don't need to add transects — they're there if you want to define and measure specific survey lines as part of your work. Right-click the map or cursor and choose Start Transect, or use the panel button — the button turns green and the End button pulses. Move to the end point, right-click again, and choose End Transect (or click Set End in the panel). The map will show a red start triangle and a blue finish square for each transect, connected by a green line.

3a. Use Overlays for Planning & Repeat Surveys

The Overlays tab lets you load additional GPX tracks or saved survey ZIPs on top of your current survey. This is useful for transect planning, especially when you want to compare your intended run lines with previous work in the same area.

Overlays are also useful for repeat surveys. You can load historical survey GPX files and visually line them up with the current track so you can run the same area again with better consistency.

We also use overlays to compare changes at the same location over time, and to combine underwater and DJI aerial surveys in the same review session.

Each overlay has its own visibility, colour, opacity, notes, waypoints, sightings, ruler, and boundary areas. Named overlay boundaries appear on the map with smaller labels than the live survey labels, so older survey areas stay readable without overpowering the active work.

Use Make Active to promote a timestamped overlay into the active GPX. The previous active GPX is demoted into the overlay list, including its current waypoints, sightings, boundaries, ruler, and notes. If the previous active survey had no notes, the demoted overlay is labelled Demoted from active GPX; otherwise its existing comments are kept. The promoted overlay's notes become the active Survey Notes.

Overlay metadata is preserved in saved and shared survey ZIPs, so colours, visibility, opacity, notes, labels, and overlay GPX files reload the same way next time.

3b. Map Layers

The map includes several toggle-able overlay layers accessible from the layer control in the bottom-right corner. These help you understand the regulatory and environmental context of your survey area at a glance.

Restricted Zones

A unified overlay showing marine protection and restriction areas colour-coded by type:

Blue — High Protection Areas (HPA)
Green — Seafloor Protection Areas (SPA) and Benthic Protection Areas (BPA)
Red — Marine Reserves
Orange — Cable and Pipeline Protection Zones

Click any zone to see its name, legal reference, rules summary, and a link to official information. Hover over a zone to see its name as a tooltip.

CAN Boundaries

Controlled Area Notice zones for Caulerpa. Red zones are high-risk areas with strict restrictions. Yellow zones are controlled areas with modified rules. Sourced from MPI's public ArcGIS data and cross-referenced with the latest MPI caulerpa rules.

Rāhui / Closures

Temporary closures (s186A), rāhui tapu areas, and mātaitai reserves. These include the current Ōmaha Bay, Kawau Bay, and Whangaparāoa Peninsula temporary closures, Bay of Islands rāhui, and the Aotea/Great Barrier rāhui tapū. Click any area for details including species restrictions, gazette references, and expiry dates.

Priority Zones

Risk-based surveillance priority zones derived from the national Caulerpa prioritisation framework. Each zone is scored across four weighted dimensions — introduction risk, environmental suitability, proximity to known infestations, and economic/social consequence — with override rules for culturally significant and protected areas.

Red dashed — High priority (score 34–45). Highest vessel traffic, confirmed infestations, or protected area overrides.
Amber dashed — Medium priority (score 22–33). Good habitat and moderate risk factors, or elevated by iwi/protected status.
Grey dashed — Low priority (score <22). Comparative reference zones with lower suitability.

Click any zone to see its full score breakdown, override rationale, key risk factors, and known infestations. Zones use dashed borders and low-opacity fills so underlying regulatory and sighting layers remain visible.

Other Layers

Coastal Names — place names for coastal features, bays, and headlands.
WMP Sightings — confirmed Caulerpa sightings from the Weed Management Programme.
iNaturalist Caulerpa — Caulerpa observations from iNaturalist NZ, colour-coded red for exotic species and purple for native. Click for species, photo, date, and a link to iNaturalist. Updated weekly.
Community Sightings — Caulerpa observations reported through the community sighting viewer.
LINZ Aerial (NZ) — high-resolution aerial imagery from Land Information New Zealand.
Nautical Chart — OpenSeaMap navigation marks and depth data.

4. Log Sightings

When you spot something, press S on the keyboard or click Add Sighting (or use the floating button in fullscreen mode). A frame is captured automatically. Fill in the details — name, notes, biota type, density, and benthic description.

Snapshot metadata: Saved JPEG frames carry all available position, time, altitude, depth, camera, and heading information in EXIF/XMP metadata, together with the source video/time, sighting details, image adjustments, and a Dropcam Telemetry Viewer processing marker. The heading is also sent directly with the sighting data used for reports; the reporting agent does not have to re-extract it from the JPEG.

Manual sightings: if you don't have a video frame to capture from (e.g. a sighting noted on a separate camera, a phone snap, or a position you only logged on paper), right-click anywhere on the map and choose Add Manual Sighting. The modal opens pre-filled with the click coordinates, lets you edit the lat/lon directly, and offers a Choose Photo (optional) tile so you can attach an image from disk. The saved sighting behaves identically to a video-derived one — same map marker, same Sightings tab entry, same archive ZIP and report inclusion.

Sightings appear in the list and as markers on the map. If you've defined transects, sightings will automatically assign to the correct one based on their timestamp. Timeline ticks let you jump back to any sighting instantly, and you can click the edit button or open the image lightbox to update details at any time. Right-click any sighting marker on the map for an Edit Sighting / Delete Sighting context menu — the same actions as the ✎/× buttons in the Sightings tab.

If a sighting has the wrong image, or no image yet, open the sighting image/lightbox and use Add Photo / Replace Photo to choose an image from disk, or Add Frame / Replace Frame to capture the current frame from the loaded video. Frame replacement works best when the correct video is loaded and synced to the sighting time.

Image enhancement: the sighting modal and image lightbox include enhancement controls for underwater frames. Click the sighting preview to inspect the larger image, then use a preset as a starting point. Presets only load slider values; they do not apply the filter by themselves. Tick Auto enhance image to preview and save the current slider settings, and untick it to compare against the original image.

A practical workflow is: start with Natural for a mild correction or Green water for green/turbid footage, tick the checkbox to preview, then adjust sliders gently. Brightness fixes dark or washed-out frames, Contrast makes features stand out, Saturation controls colour strength, White balance warms or cools the image, Fake red rebuilds lost underwater red, Dehaze reduces water-column veil, Clarity boosts local texture, and Sharpen crisps fine edges. Avoid pushing Fake red, Dehaze, Clarity, or Sharpen too far — they can make sand pink, edges harsh, or noise more obvious.

When you tune a photo manually, the sliders remember those settings for the next photo. Save turns the apply checkbox off for the just-saved image so it is not enhanced twice, but your slider values stay ready for the next sighting. Click another preset only when you want a new starting point.

Sighting modal with captured frame, biota, density, and notes fields

The sighting modal — captured frame, biota type, density, benthic, and notes.

5. Waypoints, Boundaries & Ruler

The map has a right-click context menu that changes depending on what you click — the map, a waypoint, or the track cursor. These tools let you annotate your survey with spatial detail that carries through to the final report.

Waypoints

Right-click the map and choose Add Waypoint to drop a labelled marker. You can drag waypoints to reposition them, and right-click a waypoint to delete it. Waypoints are included in the saved GPX and in every report with NZTM coordinates.

Boundary Areas

Boundaries let you outline areas of interest — like a caulerpa patch or a reef edge. Right-click and choose Boundary Leg to start drawing. The cursor becomes a crosshair and a dotted yellow preview line follows the mouse. Left-click to place each vertex. Vertices will snap to nearby waypoints or existing boundary points automatically. Right-click to finish, or press Escape to cancel. To close a polygon, drop the last vertex on the first one — they will snap together. After drawing, every yellow vertex is draggable: grab one to reshape the polygon, and drop a vertex within ~12 m of another to merge them. The area is calculated and shown below the map.

Map showing boundary polygons with area labels and waypoints

Boundary areas outlined on the map with named labels and area measurements.

Click on a boundary line to delete the nearest vertex. Right-click and choose Clear Boundary to remove all boundaries. If a boundary leg is attached to a waypoint, the boundary moves with the waypoint when you drag it.

Ruler

Right-click the map and choose Start Ruler to place the first point, then right-click again and choose Add Ruler Point to place the second. A dashed yellow line appears with the distance and heading shown below the map. Drag the markers to adjust. Click the ruler line to clear and start over.

Track Trimming

If your GPX has unwanted data before or after the survey, right-click the cursor marker (the green dot on the track) and choose Trim Track Before Cursor or Trim Track After Cursor. Trimming is blocked if any sightings or transects would be lost — you'll need to remove them first.

Map-Only Live Position

In map-only mode, you can enable Show Live Position to place a blue GPS marker on the map using your phone or tablet's current browser location. This is useful when returning to a previously logged sighting, waypoint, or point on the survey track.

Once the blue Live Position marker is showing, right-click a sighting, waypoint, or the green track cursor and choose Navigate To Here. The viewer draws a dotted blue line from your live position to the selected target. Use Clear Navigation to remove the current route.

On mobile, the Survey panel opens from a short left-edge drawer tab and supports edge-swipe opening without taking over the whole map. If you record a track from the phone and pause it, use Share Survey to create the normal shared-survey ZIP/link. If a main GPX is already loaded, the mobile-recorded track is exported as an overlay instead of replacing the active GPX.

6. Fill in Survey Info

The Survey Info tab captures your agency, survey name, method, site code, date, operator details, and water temperatures. This metadata travels with every report you send so agencies know exactly what they're looking at.

Practice first: It's a good idea to do a practice run through the whole workflow before submitting to an agency. Load a test video and GPX, add a few sightings, and try a report — that way you're confident with the process when it counts.

7. Report & Share

The Reporting tab is where you package and send your survey. Local backups:

Save GPX — downloads an updated GPX with all your waypoints, transects, boundaries, ruler, overlays, and metadata.
Save Survey — creates a local ZIP backup using the same manifest-based survey structure as shared surveys. Local ZIPs include the GPX, sidecar JSON, overlays, notes, and images you have loaded or captured, but do not include the agent-generated PDF/Excel files.

Pick a Survey reporting format — this is what the agent produces and sends back:

Full ZIP (default) — cover PDF, Excel workbook, sightings CSV, GPX, and all sighting images. Best for archive/handover.
PDF report only — just the cover PDF.
Excel workbook only — just the .xlsx data sheets.
CSV only — just the sightings table.
Share link — uploads a lightweight survey snapshot to the agent and gives you a copy-able URL or QR code. Anyone with the link can open the survey in their own viewer (no video). The snapshot includes sightings, waypoints, boundaries, rulers, transects, overlay GPX files, overlay notes/display settings, and sync metadata for loaded videos. Choose an expiry (1 hour / 1 day / 7 days / 30 days) and tick "Include sighting images" if you want them embedded. Each click of Create Share Link creates a brand-new link — old links remain valid until they expire.

For PDF / Excel / CSV / Full ZIP, also tick where you want it delivered:

Download to this session — saves the file in your browser.
Email to operator / Email to address below — sends as an attachment.
Submit for AI Training — uploads the raw data to AAT (always uses the Full ZIP format; auto-disabled for single-file formats).
Send to Dropcam Surveys — also publishes your survey to the public Dropcam Surveys map (see the section below).

Run AI Object Detection annotates your sighting images with detected species before packaging. Skipped automatically for Share links so they stay fast.

Hit Send Report (or Create Share Link in share mode) when ready.

Reporting tab with format radio and destination toggles

The Reporting tab — pick a format, pick destinations, then Send Report.

Dropcam Surveys — the public catalogue

Dropcam Surveys is a community map of approved surveys you can browse straight from the viewer. Toggle the Dropcam Surveys layer in the layer control (top-right of the map) and approved surveys appear as colour-coded centroid dots:

Red — admin marked the survey as a positive Caulerpa sighting.
Green — negative: clean seabed.
Orange — pending admin review.

The outer ring shows lifetime progress — it starts white when newly published and fills with black as the survey ages toward its expiry. A mostly-black ring means the survey is close to expiring.

Hover a centroid for survey metadata (title, agency, date, sighting count, public reference like DCS-000001). Click to load the full survey in place — track (dashed light line), transect segments (dotted green), transect start/end markers (red ▲ / blue ■), and clickable sighting markers. Clicking the same dot again unloads it. Loaded survey sighting dots are drawn smaller than the centroid dot so you can distinguish the survey summary point from its individual observations.

Hover any sighting marker for a thumbnail + notes preview. Click to open the full lightbox — use the ‹ › arrows or ← / → keys to cycle through every image in the survey.

Publishing your own survey to Dropcam Surveys

In the Reporting tab, tick Send to Dropcam Surveys alongside your other destinations. A small panel opens asking how long the survey should remain on the public map: 1, 2, or 3 years. Operator email is required — that's where your management reference is sent.

When you press Send Report, the survey is queued for admin review. Once an admin approves it, the centroid dot appears on the public map for everyone who has the layer enabled.

Your management reference

The thank-you email contains a one-time management reference (a UUID like cba9eaaf-6f0b-4257-807a-c3f863af14bb). Keep it safe — anyone holding it can manage the survey. We do not store it anywhere except in that email; if you lose it, contact AAT NZ.

The reference is deliberately never put in a URL so it doesn't end up in browser history, proxy logs, or third-party analytics.

Managing a published survey

Open the viewer and click Manage published survey on the upload screen. Paste the reference and you can:

Change the public years — adjust between 1 / 2 / 3 years; the expiry date recalculates from your original publish date.
Reset to original — restore the years value you chose at submission.
Hide / show submitter details — toggle whether your operator name and email appear in admin records.
Unpublish — remove the survey from the public map (admins can still see it).
Republish — bring an unpublished survey back to the public map.
Administrator conversation — read admin requests and send replies from the same management panel if more information or changes are needed.

Every action is recorded in the survey's audit log so admins can see what happened and when.

Loading a shared survey

If someone has emailed you a share link or just the reference token, you have two ways to open it:

Click the share URL — the viewer auto-loads the bundle in map-only mode.
From the upload screen, click Load shared survey and paste either the full URL (https://dropcam.aat.nz/?share=…) or just the bare reference token. The viewer accepts either format.
On supported devices, use the scan button in the Load shared survey dialog to scan the share QR code with the camera.

Share bundles include the GPX, sightings, waypoints, transects, boundaries, rulers, overlay GPX files, and (if the sender enabled it) sighting images. They expire on the schedule chosen at creation (1 hour / 1 day / 7 days / 30 days).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
S	Add sighting — captures the current video frame and opens the sighting modal.
Escape	Cancel boundary drawing if in progress, or close the image lightbox.
← / →	(Image lightbox open) Cycle through every sighting image in the survey. Zoom level persists between images.

Right-Click Menu

The context menu is the main way to interact with the map. It adapts based on exactly what you right-click — the open map, a waypoint marker, a boundary label, a boundary line, or the track cursor. Only the actions that make sense in that context are shown, so the menu stays clean and uncluttered.

Right-click context menu showing map actions

The context menu adapts to show only relevant actions for what you clicked.

On the Map (open area)

Start Transect — begins a new transect at the clicked location. The Start button in the panel turns green.
End Transect — finishes the active transect at the clicked location (visible only when a transect is in progress).
Add Waypoint — drops a labelled waypoint marker you can drag to reposition. Included in the saved GPX and every report with NZTM coordinates.
Add Manual Sighting — opens the sighting modal pre-filled with the click coordinates. Use this when you don't have a video frame to capture from. Edit the lat/lon directly, attach a photo from disk via the Choose Photo (optional) tile, fill in the usual sighting fields, and Save. Behaves identically to a video-derived sighting once saved.
Boundary Leg — starts drawing a new boundary polygon from the clicked point. The cursor becomes a crosshair and a preview line follows your mouse. Left-click to place each vertex; right-click or press Escape to finish. To close, drop the last vertex on the first one. Existing vertices are also draggable for reshaping.
Delete Boundary Leg — removes the nearest boundary leg (line segment) to where you clicked.
Delete All Boundaries — clears all boundary polygons from the map.
Start Ruler — places the first ruler point. Right-click again and choose Add Ruler Point to complete the measurement. Distance and bearing are shown below the map. Drag either marker to adjust.
Add Ruler Point — adds the next ruler point (visible after Start Ruler has been used). Multiple points create a multi-segment ruler with a total distance.
Delete Ruler — removes the ruler line and markers.

On a Waypoint

Rename Waypoint — opens a prompt to give the waypoint a custom name. The label updates immediately on the map and in any report you generate.
Delete Waypoint — removes the waypoint. Any boundary vertices attached to it are also removed.
Boundary Leg — starts a new boundary polygon snapped to the waypoint's exact location.
Start Ruler — begins a ruler measurement from the waypoint's location.
Navigate To Here — in map-only mode with Show Live Position enabled, draws a dotted blue line from your live GPS position to this waypoint.

On a Sighting

Edit Sighting — opens the sighting modal so you can update the name, biota, density, benthic description, notes, lat/lon (manual sightings), or attached photo. You can add/replace the photo from disk or capture/replace it from the current video frame. Same dialog as the ✎ button in the Sightings tab.
Delete Sighting — removes the sighting after a confirmation prompt. Same action as the × button in the Sightings tab.
Navigate To Here — in map-only mode with Show Live Position enabled, draws a dotted blue line from your live GPS position to this sighting.

On a Boundary Area Label

Rename Area — opens a prompt to give the boundary a custom name (e.g. "Caulerpa Patch A", "Survey Zone 1"). Names appear on the map label and in the generated report.
Delete Area — removes that individual boundary polygon.

On a Boundary Line

Rename Area — available from the boundary line as well as the label.
Delete Area — removes that individual boundary polygon.
Delete Boundary Leg — removes the nearest boundary line segment while keeping the rest of the boundary where possible.

On the Track Cursor

Right-click the green cursor marker that follows the GPS track as video plays.

Start Transect — starts a new transect at the cursor's current position on the track.
End Transect — ends the active transect at the cursor's position.
Navigate To Here — in map-only mode with Show Live Position enabled, draws a dotted blue line from your live GPS position to the cursor's current track position.
Trim Track Before Cursor — removes all track points before the cursor. Useful for cleaning up GPS data recorded before you arrived at the site. Blocked if sightings or transects would be lost.
Trim Track After Cursor — removes all track points after the cursor. Useful if GPS kept recording after the survey ended. Blocked if sightings or transects would be lost.

While Live Navigation Is Active

Clear Navigation — removes the current dotted blue route from the live position marker to the selected target.

AI Object Detection

In the Reporting tab, enable the Object Detection toggle before submitting. Your sighting images will be run through the AI model during processing — detections are drawn on the images and summarised in the Excel report and cover PDF.

Sighting image with AI detection bounding boxes drawn

AI detection in action — bounding boxes drawn around identified objects.

Detection is optional — if the toggle is off, everything else works exactly the same. Each survey helps improve future detection accuracy.

Data & Privacy

Your video and GPX files never leave your computer until you choose to send a report or create a share link. See the landing page for our full privacy statement.

Keep a backup of your processed files — once processing is complete, they're deleted from our servers. Share links also expire automatically (1 hour to 30 days, your choice).

Tips for Good Surveys

Before You Go

Charge everything — phone, camera, spare batteries.
Make sure your GPS app is recording before you start video.
Sync your camera clock as close to your phone time as possible.
Clear enough storage for continuous video.
Clean the lens well.

During the Survey

Keep GPS running the entire time — don't stop until you're done.
Go slow — around 0.5 km/h is ideal for review. Pause occasionally to get a clear frame. Try to keep the camera directly below you — if it's out the back, it's now a towcam and you're travelling too fast.
Take a slow video pan of your surroundings at the start and finish of each drop, and make mental notes of landmarks — they help with syncing later.
If practical, film your phone screen for a few seconds before the drop so you can verify the time stamp, including the seconds count, during review.
DJI footage can be useful for aerial surveys, especially on coastlines.
The system also works well for diver and snorkeller surveys where the diver records the video and the mobile phone or GPS recording stays in a float boat directly above them.
Shoreline surveys above water can also be recorded in the same system for logging sightings.

Underwater dropcam footage showing seabed

Example dropcam footage — clear view of the seabed with good visibility.

Documenting Sightings

Good notes make a real difference. Be specific about what you see:

Size and extent of the patch
Density — none, possible, sparse, moderate, or dense
What the seabed looks like — sand, rock, mud, mixed
Nearby features — moorings, structures, channel edges

Better to record too much than miss something. Future you — and the agencies reviewing your data — will be grateful for the detail.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to Check
Map doesn't move with video	Make sure you've clicked Sync & Play and that the video start time is correct.
GPS position is way off	Click Resync, adjust the start time, and sync again.
Video and GPX did not auto-sync	Load order does not matter. Check that their date ranges genuinely overlap and that any date-and-time filename follows a recognised format. If the clocks or filename are unreliable, use Unsync Files and align the Video Position and GPX Position manually.
Camera Heading shows unavailable	The file may not contain recognised gimbal or aircraft yaw. The viewer can fall back to the synced GPS direction while the camera is moving, but deliberately marks it unavailable after roughly 10 accepted positions remain within about 1 metre so a stale direction is not shown.
Video won't play	Check the format — MP4, WebM, and MOV are supported. Try converting with VLC if needed.
GPX file won't load	Confirm it's a `.gpx` file, not KML or another format.
SRT file won't load or shows no track	Confirm the SRT is from a DJI drone and contains embedded telemetry (latitude, longitude, abs_alt lines inside each subtitle block). SRT files from non-DJI cameras or subtitle-only files won't work.
Send Report button disabled	You need a GPX loaded, at least one sighting, Survey Name and Site Code filled in, and images loaded for sightings. (Share Link mode is more lenient — it just needs the agent online.)
Agent shows offline	Check the status dot in the viewer header. The agent may be temporarily unavailable.

Sharing Your Survey

Your reported data helps the people and organisations working to protect our marine environments:

Our kids and future generations — so they inherit healthy coastlines and thriving ecosystems.
Our native marine animals, critters, plants, and natural environment — every sighting contributes to their protection.
Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) — national biosecurity tracking and eradication coordination.
Regional Councils — local monitoring, management planning, and resource allocation.
Iwi and hapū — protecting mahinga kai, traditional fishing grounds, and sites of cultural significance.
Community groups — citizen science programmes, local monitoring, and awareness.

Direct submission to Auckland Council, Northland Regional Council, and MPI is coming soon. For now, the report ZIP can be emailed, or you can use a share link to hand the survey straight to the relevant contacts in your area.

What's Ahead

This project is a living thing — it grows as the community's needs grow. Here's what we're working towards:

Caulerpa AI Detection A purpose-built model trained on real dropcam survey footage from New Zealand waters. In development now.

Direct Council Submission One-click reporting to Auckland Council, Northland Regional Council, and MPI in the formats they need.

Mobile Refinements The viewer now supports the mobile drawer, live position, recorded-track sharing, and shared-survey loading; future work will keep tightening phone and tablet workflows.

More Species Models Extending AI detection to other species and environmental indicators as training data becomes available.