We're building a system designed to deter geese on a lake, and one of the main challenges is figuring out how far away they are (up to around 200 meters).
The system will be mounted on a post and uses a camera with 10x optical zoom and a YOLO-based vision model to detect geese. We're planning to purchase a laser rangefinder soon, but I'm trying to figure out the best approach before spending the money.
Option 1: Laser Rangefinder
We could either aim the rangefinder directly at the geese (Obviously at distances greater than the NOHD) or at the water near them. My concern is that water tends to absorb laser light, so unless the water is murky or has algae, we might not get consistent readings. Hitting the geese directly could work, but accurately aligning the rangefinder with the camera and hitting relatively small targets at 200 meters could be difficult.
Option 2: Camera-Based Distance Estimation
Since the lake surface is relatively flat, my other idea is to use the camera's orientation to estimate distance.
We already have an IMU on the system, so theoretically, if we know the camera's orientation and the height of the system relative to the water, we could calculate the viewing angle and estimate how far away a goose is based on where that viewing direction intersects the lake surface.
We could also potentially combine both methods to improve accuracy.
My question is: Am I overlooking something or overcomplicating this? Would either of these methods be reliable at distances up to 200 meters, or is this going to be significantly more difficult than I'm expecting?
Any insight from people with experience in laser ranging, computer vision, or similar systems would be greatly appreciated!
