Innovative strategy and process for underwater data gathering and results elaboration

The development of new marine environment monitoring technologies is a field of research involving an heterogeneous public. The documentation and cataloging of underwater sites as well as the supervision and sampling of biological parameters have always involved researchers like archaeologists and biologists. Moreover, sport activities regarding the sea have been showing a keen interest in more efficient devices that are specifically developed for storing data during the immersion. Within the introduced framework, it is important to let the user operate in an efficient and easy way, without creating damages to the environment. This paper describes the design and realization of a device, called DiRAMa, and the relative architecture for data gathering in underwater environments. The device is planned to make the image and data acquisition easy, and let the user upload all the information on an appropriate Web Server as soon as an Internet connection is available. Users can launch 3D reconstruction processes, which use photos and other materials just uploaded, while the Web Server sends notification on the mobile device informing about elaboration status. Innovation and potentiality brought by DiRAMa are introduced, and the general architecture of the system described. The validation of the structure out of water and its use in real field mission involving biologists and other scientist is discussed, together with possible future improvements. © 2014 IEEE