Shooting video underwater poses a very interesting opportunity to explore ways to deal with extreme lighting conditions, optical distortions, variable visibility, etc. We are designing an original multi-lighting setup composed of untethered "light buoys". These are small water-proof capsules containing strong, multicolor LED lights that are not only water-proof but should be capable of achieving static buoyancy (that is, the light sources would be able to "float around" the subject like a school of fish). Static buoyancy is much simpler to realize than true positional stability (underwater drone

cameras) while at the same time may be more than enough for a wide-angle lighting source. In a first instantiation this will be achieved by modifying a wearable blood pressure monitor (the inflating and deflating rubber balloon effectively works as the swimming bladder of fish).

The attached picture shows some early prototypes of the "light buoy", also containing an ambient light/color sensor to create special lighting environments. In the future, the recording equipment (perhaps tiny video cameras) could also be encapsulated in "camera buoys"; these could float around and capture the environment in multiple views, to thus reconstruct a 3d model without requiring either a careful setup nor the active participation of a cameraman.