DISCOVER DIFFERENTLY: SUBMARINE FAUNA & FLORA OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

This is the story of a little guide who grew up from the world festival of underwater images thanks to the special mention of the jury for his innovative concept. It is indeed a guide unlike any other: the 1st interactive, participatory and evolving guide on marine biodiversity. If we repeat history, here is the observation: yesterday dinosaurs, today augmented reality. And tomorrow ?

Dinosaurs everyone knows, augmented reality less sure! And yet, the augmented dinosaurs already exist!

The first idea was to propose a small, accessible, general guide to the main Mediterranean species. But a guide like no other, an "augmented" guide.
Seen from another angle, the first idea was to pool and synergize everyone's skills. Prince Albert understood this well and said it in a sympathetic way: “a team of passionate photographers divers chose to lay the first stone in the building of what prefigures the educational guide of tomorrow!”. It is thanks to this that we obtained the support of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

But this guide is above all, as His Serene Highness also says, a story of shared friendship and passion, its particularity being to use two supports in a complementary way: paper and digital.

On the paper side, on the hundreds of species sheets, the information is frozen. It is sufficient for identification before or after observation, with a brief description, nice photos and the information is unlikely to change.

On the other hand, other information that could have been recorded in the guide is likely to change, such as the regulatory status and the minimum size of fishing for example. That's where digital comes in ... easier to edit.

List the main marine protected areas of the Mediterranean is a work developed in partnership with the medpan, the network of marine protected area managers who entrusts us with their data, continuously updated.

How to best describe the biotopes of the Mediterranean other than through images? This is where the content of the DVD "the Mediterranean and its biotopes" comes in, produced by the association. GEOM, little educational clips already very popular.

Videos are also found on most species, generally a wide shot and a tight shot. They were taken, like the majority of the photos, by the members of the association Mediterranean Blue Declic.

And then, the guide is also participatory, since it is a bridge with citizen observatories of biodiversity, via a direct and permanent link, encouraging the reader to engage in the collection of information on underwater biodiversity. The Rhône Méditerranée and Corsica water agency  entrusted us with this mission, with the possibility of joining, via the guide, the website dedicated to its observatory of underwater landscapes and that of sentinel fishermen from the Mediterranean.

These scalable content is accessible by QR-Code that you can flash with your tablet or smartphone from the usual software (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Phone, ... etc).

But the guide doesn't stop there. It also offers augmented reality bonuses. But quézaco?

As Philippe Carrez, the founder of Suboceana, who is responsible for developing the digital part of the guide, explains so naturally: “ Augmented reality is our natural environment enriched with elements that are not here and now ". Today by looking around us through the eye of a webcam, a phone, or even specific glasses such as the very popular Google Glasses, we can interact virtually with objects, sounds, images and texts… For example, we can see in situ a destroyed castle, a future architectural project and even the famous dinosaur crossing the street… With augmented reality, everything becomes possible… and all the art of immersive tools - c ' is their name - like those developed by Suboceana (http://www.suboceana.fr), it is to show with simplicity everything that is not visible!

As far as we are concerned, around twenty species will be virtually visible in 3D by the end of the year thanks to this new technology… and not just fish. For this, it is imperative to install the free application dedicated to the book (for iOS and Android) which offers both a QR Code reader but also an augmented reality reader. The guide then takes on a new dimension. And as we often hear since: it's bluffing!

Because we are trying to be ready for tomorrow, this application is also a European first, because it is the first to make an interactive paper guide via Google Glasses, Google's augmented reality glasses, which allow you to manipulate the book more easily by freeing our hands from our phone or tablet. This experience was made possible thanks to the AMA company from Rennes who made glasses available to Suboceana for a whole day.

By Sandrine Agnelli - Nicolas Barraque - Philippe Carrez - Morgane Constantin - Yann Valton 

Published by Turtle Prod

12 Euros