WaterHCI Part 1: Open Water Monitoring with Realtime Augmented Reality

This is the first of our two accepted papers in this conference so we are presenting it as Part 1 in the new and growing field known as Water-HCI or WaterHCI (Water-Human-Computer Interface/Interaction/Intersection). WaterHCI originated in the 1960s and 1970s as a form of water interaction, water monitoring, water-based augmented reality / extended reality, and the like. Much of this work began with hydraulophones (underwater musical instruments) in the 1960s and underwater Augmented Reality (AR) or eXtended Reality (XR) with the SWIM (Sequential Wave Imprinting Machine) in the 1970s. SWIM is a sensing and meta-sensing (sensing-of-sensing) tool with real-world applications in the XR visualization of otherwise invisible phenomena. In this paper, SWIM is applied to understanding open water, such as at beaches, to realtime understanding of water characteristics, and their spatial variations. A sensor and meta-sensor pod was developed and can be towed behind a swimmer to provide immediate XR feedback of the current water characteristics to enable the swimmer to choose an optimal path to swim. Part 2 of WaterHCI was also developed based on autonomous crafts, drones, and the like to sense water quality and generate an XR "heatmap" that shows spatial variations of water properties such as water temperature, turbidity, conductivity, etc., made visible to a swimmer’s head-up display in realtime.