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INTEGRATED MULTIMEDIA MIXED REALITY SYSTEM, OF REAL TIME VIRTUAL DIVING, BY WEB TELEOPERATED UNDERWATER DATA COLLECTING ROBOTS, DIFFUSED ONLINE AND THROUGH A NETWORK OF SUBMERSIBLE SIMULATION DEVICES (Digital Ocean)
Start date: Jan 1, 2011, End date: Dec 31, 2012 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Discovery of ocean depths concerns every one of us. Recent developments of new technologies, of underwater robotic and of GPS are changing dramatically the way people perceive oceans, not anymore from their surfaces, but through their depths, not in immersion but on-line, not deferred but in real time. This is the objective of Digital Ocean. New technologies are now capable of challenging traditional scuba diving by creating an innovative form of diving, based on science and technology, not on bravery - virtual diving in real time. Navigating freely in the oceanic realm, a dream rooted on man’s origins, is now accessible to all. Smart autonomous robots are used to collect underwater digital data that generate sceneries of undersea in 3D interactive imagery. Then, these preprocessed background productions are merged, through mixed reality, with real time 2D videos taken by other distant underwater remote controlled robots teleoperated via the internet, and diffused on-line. As a result, through the web, anyone, anywhere, at any moment - with minimal costs and no risks, will be able to dive virtually in real time, in the most remarkable and secluded sites around the world, unconcerned by sea depths, and get an unmatched quality of images, discover a variety of details, experience the feelings of diving without its constraints and, above all, keeping undisturbed the environment Thus, virtual divers alone or in groups, will be able in few days to discover more than a real diver during all his lifetime. To further enhance virtual diving experience, are integrated in the system a serious video game, a wiki-editing and e-learning platforms, linked with marine specialists. Divers themselves will build their immersed world, keeping virtual sites mirroring real sites, continuously updated and improving in realism. With Digital Ocean, the discovery of the other two thirds of our planet’s immersed territories will become eventually and irreversibly reachable.
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