Author: Marco Daturi –
www.scubazone.it
Google continues to surprise us and finally dives under the
sea to inspect the coral reefs: in fact, he was born SeaView in collaboration with the University of Queensland and the company
American Catlin Group Limited.
The video of the SeaView project presentation
Il Catlin Seaview Survey was born to study and
monitor the composition of the coral reef in the first 100 meters of
depth. This is not another scientific expedition but the objective is
that of capturing the public's imagination and putting it in touch with the
science in a way that has never been done before.
The project is led by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg who will coordinate the
work on the study of climate change and environmental impacts on
ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef.
“The Catline Seaview Survey comprises a series of studies
which will reveal to the public one of the Earth's last frontiers: the oceans.
For the first time in history, we have the technology to transmit the
discoveries and expeditions through Google. Millions of people will be able to discover
the life, science, and magic that exists beneath the surface of our oceans.
The project is very exciting”
A screenshot of SeaView
Monitoring is carried out through sequences of
hundreds of photographs taken by a 360-degree rotating video camera, with
a technology similar to that already used for the Google Car. This
Underwater video camera, developed by Catline Group is pushed by a scooter
underwater.
The Catline scooter with 360-degree camera
The video camera in action
Google collaborates with Catlin Seaview Survey with a new
Panoramio feature (which links photos to geographic location), in
so that these 360-degree panoramic photos can be made available to everyone.
We hope that this new tool will be useful for both
pre-established scientific purposes, both to create a little curiosity among the non-
divers and entice some of them to actually dive into something
of the seas photographed by Google or… even closer! We can assure them
we that the virtual experience, however well made, is not even
remotely comparable to the real thing. As someone said… try it for yourself
believe!
Demo:
http://www.catlinseaviewsurvey.com/seaview.htm
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