An Italian company offers a technology using the augmented reality in underwater environments for recreational diving activities and for the exploitation of underwater archaeological sites

This company, established in 2008, is a spin-off company of an Italian university. It has considerable experience in the field of computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality applied to the cultural heritage and industrial engineering fields. In recent years it has focused part of its research and business activities in the blue economy sector, by providing innovative solutions for the marine and environmental protection, as well as for the sustainable tourism promotion of the underwater cultural and naturalistic heritage. Since 2012, the company has focused on underwater technologies, developing innovative systems for underwater 3D reconstruction and technologies to help the divers during the exploration of underwater archaeological sites. These systems can be used both by tourists and by professionals, such as archaeologists and marine biologists. Moreover, the company has considerable experience in developing virtual underwater visits to simulate a diving session on the underwater archaeological sites using the most innovative technologies, like virtual reality. In addition to the virtual underwater visits, the company has great expertise in designing and developing serious games and digital storytelling to providing the wide public with innovative ways to access the cultural heritage and underwater cultural heritage (UCH). Over the years, the company has been involved in several EU-funded successful projects. The Italian company offers a technology that adopts hybrid tracking techniques (acoustic positioning systems and visual odometry) to provide divers with an augmented visualization of the actual condition and of a hypothetical 3D reconstruction of the archaeological remains as appeared in the past and to navigate within the underwater archaeological site. The experimentation did prove that the technology contributes to have a better comprehension of the underwater site and its archaeological remains, thus improve the "visit experience" of a diver. Underwater augmented reality is mostly an unexplored area with very few solutions, most of them for controlled environments like swimming pools, whereas the underwater navigation function is mainly related to military applications. This technology is the first attempt in using the augmented reality in underwater environments for recreational diving activities and in particular for the exploitation of underwater archaeological sites. The technology is primarily addressed to diving centres, tour operators, and divers which are commercial targets, representing a fast-growing market, involving a new type of seasonal tourism for interesting diving sites and new underwater adventures. To this end, the diving centres and tour operators may offer a rich and immersive experience to divers visiting underwater cultural and naturalistic sites. The Italian company offers the technology under commercial agreements with technical assistance. The Italian company will provide the technology and tailored services to fit the needs of the technology partner. The company is also willing to cooperate under research cooperation agreement in order to apply the technology in other fields. Research activities can also be addressed to extend the functionalities or to create new scenarios, as new submerged sites, both cultural and naturalistic. Cooperation to submit proposals under new European projects with the same aims can also be evaluated. The company is also offering the technology to licensees under license agreements.