An Immersive Dive

The Project

The Mediterranean Sea has a vast maritime heritage which exploitation is made difficult because of the many limitations imposed by the submerged environment. Archaeological diving tours, in fact, suffer from the impossibility to provide underwater an exhaustive explanation of the submerged remains. Furthermore, low visibility conditions, due to water turbidity and biological colonization, sometimes make very confusing for tourists to find their way around in the underwater archaeological site. Be they amateurs or professional, how can the divers have an exact idea of how the archaeological remains appeared in the past? Underwater Augmented Reality is for a really immersive dive! It was realized on a tailor-made underwater tablet that allows the diver to better orientate itself in the submerged environment and enhance diving experience through an on-site augmented visualization representing a 3D hypothetical reconstruction of the ancient ruins present in the underwater site.

Specifics

Produced in 2016-2020 by 3D Research, a Spin-Off Company of the University of Calabria. The mission of 3D Research is to bring the technical know-how about CGI, Virtual and Augmented Reality to the Cultural Heritage field. Since 2016, the company has been involved in several EU funded projects, where it gained a huge experience in the underwater field, in particular in underwater reconstructions, virtual diving experiences and assisted navigation technologies. 3D Research’s team is composed of software developers, mechanical engineers, 2D/3D artist, and divers. The UWAR Application has been developed in the framework of the H2020 iMARECulture project (Advanced VR, iMmersive serious games and Augmented REality as tools to raise awareness and access to European underwater CULTURal heritage).