Take a tour of Santorini like no other

Close your eyes for a moment. When you open them, you'll find yourself in the main square of Fira, on the southern Aegean island of Santorini. Then, as if by magic, you're flying above the cable car, down to the sea and plunging into the caldera to explore the underwater crater before emerging on Nea Kameni to tour the volcanic islet. This is not my imagination running wild during the lockdown, but the experience of a "real" virtual and augmented reality project that is in the works right now.

Using cutting-edge technology, virtualDIVER is expected to be ready for launch in mid-2021 after more than two years of hard work by a 15-strong team. It's the brainchild of Athens University geologist Evi Nomikou, who put the university in touch with three companies (Up2metric, Steficon and Tetragon) in order to develop a proposal for an initiative of the General Secretariat for...