Nissan has announced that they will be providing assistance to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). The manufacturer’s Around View Monitor (AVM) technology, which is in use in their cars, will be installed in remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that navigate sea floors. These same ROVs can travel up to 7,000 metres below sea level.

Nissan has been using AVM technology in their cars for some years. What it does is offer a 360 degree view of a car through a monitor in the infotainment system. This technology has proven to be very useful, especially for parking. In 2011 Moving Object Detection (MOD) was added to AVM. MOD detects movement around the vehicle when moving out of a car space, for example.

These two technologies will help the underwater exploration by giving operators aboard mother ships a bird’s eye view of what’s going on around the ROV in the deep sea. The MOD technology will also aid navigation of the sea floor by helping ROV operators avoid obstacles around the vehicle.

The ROVs which are being tested at the moment includes an AVM which features “three-dimensional picture processing capability”. We’re told that this will “improve measurement of distances on the ocean floor”. This technology will aid JAMSTEC in the their deep sea search for natural resources as well aid the collection of data on what happens in the deep blue sea.