Tunas farm in Malta

Real Time

Underwater Camera Video Streaming
from Peristera’s ancient shipwreck

CAM1 || CAM2 || CAM3 || CAM4 || CAM5 || ALL CAMS

REMOTE LAND BASED CAMERA || PERISTERA WEATHER STATION || SOLAR REMOTE CONTROL

The merchant ship that sank near Peristera was loaded with thousands of amphorae from Mende (ancient city of Chalkidiki) and Peparethos (today’s Skopelos), areas known in antiquity for their wine. The pile of amphorae that extends to a length of 25 meters gives a sense of the outline and the dimensions of the merchant ship. The ship is one of the largest known of classical antiquity: it is estimated that it could carry about 4,000 amphorae and had a displacement of 120 tons. The impressive shipwreck proved that large merchant ships, over 100 tons, traveled to the Mediterranean as early as the 5th century B.C.

The wreck is located at the islet of Peristera near Alonissos, in the complex of the Northern Sporades islands. In 2020 the shipwreck of Peristera opened to the public for divers, as the first underwater museum in Greece.

The operation of this museum was made possible with the successful deployment of the NOUS Undersea Vision Surveillance System.

The system consists of five prototype submarine housings equipped with cameras and windshield wipers for the camera lenses. The whole operation is controlled by a number of multitasking computing units. The network of the underwater cameras ends up in a submarine hub, which is powered by a 200 m. long cable from the shore, via a purpose-built solar power station at Peristera.

Functionality has been enhanced by a weather station and a remotely-controlled 360 deg. camera for sea and land monitoring. The system transfers its data via fibre optic and RF link to an internet connection, to a server and cloud.

NOUS is equipped with Artificial Intelligence capabilities in order to distinguish, classify, associate and perceive significant differences in measurable parameters that take place and are considered of interest within the area of sea wreck. Machine Learning algorithms are implemented for intelligent information processing from images and video streams. State of art methods are used for the customization (training) of neural networks and their preparation for real time operation.

Operating depths are from -23 to -33 m, at an area of 300 vsq. m. The prototype system commenced its pilot operation in March 2020. The project was commissioned and funded by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities / Ministry of Culture & Sports under the European program “BLUEMED MED 2014-2020“.

Conceptual design and implementation of housings and cameras / UW hub, electronics, network and machine learning algorithms by George Papalambrou (NTUA / School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering) and Vasilis Mentogiannis (UFR Team).
Operations and diving support by Kostas Katsioulis (NGUE).

Prototype Installation of a solar-powered system that provides in real time:
-Video streaming from 5 underwater cameras
-Remote controlled land-based survey camera
-Remote controlled weather data and statistics
-Remote controlled solar power, data and statistics