Omnidirectional camera is a cost-effective and information-rich sensor highly suitable for many marine applications and the ocean scientific community, encompassing several domains such as augmented reality, mapping, motion estimation, visual surveillance, and simultaneous localization and mapping. However, designing and constructing such a high-quality 360$^{\circ}$ real-time streaming camera system for underwater applications is a challenging problem due to the technical complexity in several aspects including sensor resolution, wide field of view, power supply, optical design, system calibration, and overheating management. This paper presents a novel and comprehensive system that addresses the complexities associated with the design, construction, and implementation of a fully functional 360$^{\circ}$ real-time streaming camera system specifically tailored for underwater environments. Our proposed system, UWA360CAM, can stream video in real time, operate in 24/7, and capture 360$^{\circ}$ underwater panorama images. Notably, our work is the pioneering effort in providing a detailed and replicable account of this system. The experiments provide a comprehensive analysis of our proposed system.

翻译：全向摄像头是一种成本效益高且信息丰富的传感器，非常适用于众多海洋应用和海洋科学领域，涵盖增强现实、地图构建、运动估计、视觉监视以及同步定位与地图构建等多个方向。然而，为水下应用设计并构建高质量360°实时流媒体摄像系统面临诸多挑战，原因在于传感器分辨率、宽视场角、电源供应、光学设计、系统标定以及过热管理等技术层面的复杂性。本文提出了一种新颖且全面的系统，专门针对水下环境解决设计、构建和实现全功能360°实时流媒体摄像系统的相关难题。我们所提出的系统UWA360CAM能够实时传输视频、全天候持续运行，并捕捉360°水下全景图像。值得注意的是，本工作是首次详细且可重复地阐述该系统的开创性研究。实验部分对所提系统进行了全面分析。