Developing WaterHCI and OceanicXV technologies for Diving
Sarah Jane Pell, Steve Mann, Michael Lombardi · 2023
Technical diving requires us to be fully cognizant of our interactions with advanced life support systems, our adaptation to the natural environment and our participation in complex oceanic operations. It exists in the liminal space between water, humans, and technology. We explore the future of technical, artistic, and research diving at the intersection of water and human-computer interaction (HCI), specifically through WaterHCI (Water-Human-Computer Interaction) re-configured for eXtended Reality (XR) and eXtended meta-uniVerse (XV) technical diving systems. The ocean is a live and extended immersive environment. An OceanicXR/XV is key to re-envisage beyond the so-often undifferentiated oceanic-symbolic world encountered in XR/XV to support underwater omnidirectional awareness and communication. As we dive into exploring three underwater case studies, we are highlighting the probabilities of WaterHCI and OceanicXV for the future of technical diving. Through our experimentation to reconceive XV underwater, we initiate a quest for an HCI design language that incorporates interactions uniquely aquatic. The opportunity in the marine and waterways extended infrastructure of the metaverse is equally technical and conceptual. We aim to address the gap of design for dynamic and phenomenological paradigms spanning transits between submerged, terrestrial, and aerial environments, and into virtuality and alterity from deep time to Narcosis. Building upon the XV framework, we submit an initial framework conceptualization of the OceannXV to advance global impact goals in marine technologies for life underwater.