Robotics developer Adam Gobi's camera is revolutionizing underwater imagery

Adam Gobi was always a curious child, busy tinkering and building things.

As an adult, that led him to an interest in artificial intelligence and robotics, eventually turning his attention to underwater imagery.

Gobi and his Mount Pearl-based company,SulisSubsea Corporation, have now developed a subsea camera that some say isthe best of its kind in the world with the best quality at a quarter of the size of other cameras used on submersible robotics.

"We needed to push the limits, really," Gobi says.

"Most systems in the water, they put a terrestrial camera behind the flat window, and because the refraction of light is different in water than in air, it creates all sorts of problems."

Gobi and his company are featured inWe Are Canada, a six-part CBC documentary series that showcases "the next generation of passionate Canadian changemakers."

'We had made it'

Gobi's Z-70 camera was used in a recent underwater expedition on the western Pacific Ocean, the findings of which are under review by world-renowned scientists and researchers who said the images captured provide detail never seen before.

The livestream video of that expedition brought in 2.4 million viewers on Schmidt Ocean Institute's website.

"Having 2.4 million people from around the world tune into the footage of the dive at that point, that's when I knew that we had made it, we're there," Gobi said.

But all that stunning imagery came after a lot of hard work.

"There's moments we are banging ourheads against the wall because you're just trying to squeeze out so much resolution and you're coming up against the laws of physics, really, and what you can do," Gobi said.

"I knew that we were gonna have failures along the way. It's gonna take several iterations to get this right At one point I remember having to make a leap to be confident enough to know that I'm not gonna get this right the first time, but I'm pretty confident I can get it."

You can catch Gobi's story in the final episode of We Are Canada online and onCBC Television at 7:30 p.m. NT on May 14. Previously aired episodes are available online.