Fish Eye View: Project OceanLensTM

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
– Jacques Cousteau

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”

– Jacques Cousteau

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”

– Jacques Cousteau

Thanks to geographic information system (GIS) software and the rise of open source geo-mapping data, you never have to remember directions again. Satellites offer a bird’s eye view of the world from the White House to the Pyramids of Giza.

But what about a “fish eye view?”

The oceans remain a mystery, even to those who regularly traverse them. What if we could take GIS out to sea? “We realized that there was nothing like that for undersea,” says Lead Technologist Nirav Desai. “In the world of navigation, things haven’t changed much since the 1950s.” Most maritime navigational charts are still two dimensional and that often means ships are “navigating blind,” Nirav says.

Meet Project OceanLens^TM, a 3D maritime visualization software suite that allows users to import and merge bathymetric data—underwater topography—to provide a base layer that is matched to current GPS WGS 84 positions. OceanLens can then layer and toggle additional data sources on/off, live and/or static, as well as handle various levels of classified data.

Project OceanLens is the brainchild of several of our experts. In addition to Nirav, there’s Lead Associate and former “submariner” Eric Jones and Associate and Data Scientist Ian Byrnes. Ian showed Eric “this global zoomable Google Earth-like tool,” Eric say, and he wondered, “Was it possible to do something similar with bathymetric data, too?” Short answer, yes. Ian came back with a new model—and it went underwater! With the “power of data analytics,” the ability to view what used to be invisible “is just limitless,” Eric says.

With OceanLens, users can view the undersea domain from any vantage point on a flat-screen TV or on a Virtual Reality (VR) headset and see through and around underwater cables, moored science buoys, shipping lanes, winds and currents, or Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. As the viewer moves the virtual camera, data in close proximity is automatically streamed at the appropriate detail level (and cached for future efficient traversal). This process allows the OceanLens system to fuse data of varying resolutions, displaying the highest resolution data available while simultaneously providing the viewer a virtual rendering of the sea floor.

This innovative, data-layering visualization tool gives defense organizations a technological edge. And Project OceanLens architecture and data fusion techniques enable it to replace multiple current tools. Project OceanLens supports the full spectrum of planning and operations, from undersea sensor placement, intelligence data fusion, common operational picture development and communication, mission planning and training, and more.

We’re moving OceanLens into the future, developing software enhancements including the addition of overlapping data, user-generated scenario design, integration of standard nautical chart formats, and the ability to print 3D holographic renderings of critical scenes for sharing content without the need for VR hardware. We also worked with SPAWAR’s Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality (BEMR) lab to install a virtual reality demonstration booth that shows off OceanLens and are projected to replicate OceanLens’ capabilities with the Navy's undersea fleet in government facilities in Honolulu. We think Jacques Cousteau would be proud that we’re introducing the world to a fish-eye view.