Basque Enterprise Europe Network

Title

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

Reference

TOIT20210721001

Last update

Wed, Aug, 11, 2021

Deadline

Thu, Aug, 11, 2022

Abstract

An Italian company offers a technology to provide divers with an augmented visualization of the actual condition and of a hypothetical 3D reconstruction of the archaeological remains.
The 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.
They offer license, research cooperation and commercial with technical assistance agreements.

Description

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.

Technology Keywords

Applications for Tourism;Cultural Heritage;Visualisation, Virtual Reality

Keyword Codes:

01004002;01005001;01005006

Current Stage of Development

Intellectual Property Rights

Exclusive rights

IPR Comments:

Exploitation of RTD Results

Organisation/Company Type

Organisation/Company Size

Organisation Comments

Detailed Market Application Codes (VEIC)

MA Keyword

Graphics systems;Graphics terminals;Other computer graphics;3D

MA Keyword Codes:

02002002;02002004;02002007;02002008

Application Domain Description:

Collaboration Type

Comments:

The company looks for commercial agreements with tourist offices, marine protected areas, underwater parks, diving centers, and other entities involved in the promotion of the underwater cultural heritage. The Italian company will provide the technology and support to tailor it to the needs of the technology partner.

The company also welcomes cooperation with universities and research centers for joint research projects, or with companies working in complementary fields, under research cooperation agreement. The collaboration with universities and research centers can be applied both to the development of the technology in other fields (for example the training of diving operators, the simulation of operations in the industrial field) and to the extension of functionalities or to create new scenarios, as new submerged sites, both cultural and naturalistic. In this case the company can offer, in addition to the software license, also the content creation service, from 3D acquisition to the editing of texts, audio, video, etc.). The company is also available to participate in new European projects with the same aims.

As regards the licensing agreement, the company is available to start cooperations with both private individuals and public bodies. The company could ask in exchange for a fee for the use of the technology and also offer other services, such as 3D reconstruction and content editing. The license can also be sold free of charge with an agreement on the fee for the production of the content.

Additional info about TT Profile

Preferred countries for diffusion