Under the Pole, an internationally renowned underwater exploration program founded by Emmanuelle Perié-Bardout and Ghislain Bardout, combines scientific research, innovation, and awareness to better understand and protect our oceans. With expeditions taking place in remote areas like the Arctic and Pacific, their work requires exceptional rigor, reliability, and performance.

Document management plays a critical role in their missions. Scientific data sheets, safety protocols, maintenance logs, and administrative documents must all be meticulously recorded, organized, and shared between the teams aboard their expedition vessel WHY and their support base in France. The stakes are high—scientific data without proper documentation could hinder research, and lacking reliable tools would cause logistical headaches. But beyond logistics, accurate record-keeping is also crucial for diver safety. Under The Pole’s divers descend to extreme depths—sometimes up to 200 meters, ten times the limit for beginner divers. At such depths, every second matters. The longer they stay underwater, the more nitrogen their bodies absorb, requiring carefully planned decompression stops to avoid serious health risks. Recording and tracking dive times and depths is essential to ensuring safe resurfacing and preventing conditions like decompression sickness. In such a high-stakes environment, a reliable tool to scan and share these critical records is not just convenient—it’s a necessity.

Traditional flatbed scanners are impractical in such environments. That’s where Genius Scan steps in.

Life on a research vessel like WHY is far from ordinary. The team works in tight quarters and is often on the move across the seven seas. Genius Scan provides a reliable and practical solution, enabling them to scan and digitize thousands of documents with just a smartphone. Its smart filters and enhancement algorithms ensure high-quality scans, even for handwritten notes. The app works offline, making it ideal for use aboard WHY, far from having stable internet access.

For scientific research, divers collect data from each dive session, including depth, species observed, samples gathered, and protocols followed. All this research data constitutes critical information that must be properly digitized and organized for later analysis in laboratories. Moreover, Under The Pole uses Genius Scan to manage diving safety sheets and maintenance logs. Maintenance tracking is vital for expeditions spanning 60–90 days, where a precise inventory of the equipment is key to ensuring smooth operations.

On the other hand, administrative management on such expeditions involves invoices, receipts, and contracts—all of which must be accurately recorded, like for any other company. This might be for recruiting scientists at a new base for an upcoming mission or for purchasing new big-budget diving or sailing equipment.

As Ghislain Bardout explains,

“Every day, we have diving sheets to fill in and safety-related documents to send to the office in France. We scan them and send them when we have an Internet connection. It’s very operational, it works very well, and it’s exactly what we need to run an expedition.”

Scuba diver near an iceberg

What makes Genius Scan stand out for Under The Pole—and any organization working in complex environments—is its reliability, simplicity, and quality.

Genius Scan’s excellent-quality scans help keep all teams—divers, technicians, scientists, and support staff—on the same page. By digitizing over 2,000 documents per mission, the app saves weeks of administrative time and makes the entire workflow more efficient.

Ghislain Bardout adds,

“Genius Scan saves us several days, even weeks, of administrative time at the end of a mission. Thanks to Dropbox integration, for example, we can instantly save scanned documents in a folder and file them in real-time from the boat.”

Although Under The Pole operates in extreme conditions, the benefits of Genius Scan are universal. Whether you’re scanning research notes, safety protocols, or even your lunch receipt, Genius Scan provides an intuitive and efficient way to digitize and manage your paperwork.

At Genius Scan, we’re proud to support Under The Pole as part of our 1% for the Planet commitment. By providing them with a reliable tool for managing documents in extreme conditions, we’re helping them focus on what matters most: advancing science and protecting our oceans.