Orlando, Fla. (DEMA booth 1597), October 30, 2007 - Throw away the greaseboard. Forget the hand signals. Cancel the second mortgage application for the voice communications system. Professional and casual divers alike can now communicate clearly and effortlessly up to 1,000 meters away with the UTC UDI™, the first underwater digital interface device for undersea text messaging and emergency communications.

Invented and manufactured by Israel's Underwater Technology Center (UTC), the UDI allows up to 56 divers at a time to remain in constant contact with their ships and each other, simply by sending text messages using the arm-mounted wireless device, making undersea communications as easy as pointing and pressing.

The UDI will debut and is on display at the Diving Equipment & Marketing Association (DEMA) conference 2007, Oct. 31st to Nov. 3rd, in Orlando, where UTC will be exhibiting the UDI as a participating exhibitor (booth #1597). DEMA is North America's largest trade show for the diving, action water sports, and adventure travel industries.

"UDI is a quality product that provides useful and advantageous functions for all recreational, technical and commercial divers, diving facilities and companies," said Noam Azogui, manager at Commercial and Scuba Diving Services. "We examined its performance in various depths (as deep as 340 feet) and as long as 180 minutes on a single dive, searching for possible failures, malfunctions and deficiencies. The UDI is an accurate and reliable device, with the crucial ability to compensate for real-time human mistakes as compared to other commercially available products."

UTC's patented, advanced technology focuses on communications, navigation, and safety. It gives UDI the ability to allow divers to send text messages to each other across a wider area than ever before: up to 10 football fields away, while under water. This is crucial when emergency communications are required. A diver in distress, or a diver trying to assist, can issue an SOS with the press of a button. The UDI transmits the distress call up to 1,000 meters, and provides all the information divers and shipmates need to locate the signal's source, including location and depth.

Even under normal conditions, the UDI transmits programmable text messages up to 500 meters. Its lithium-ion rechargeable battery operates for up to nine hours at a time. Incoming messages automatically light the UDI's large 67mm X 35 mm (2.64 X 1.38 inch) LCD screen, making it easy for divers to read the text, and produces an audible sound. UDI straps onto a diver's arm or attaches to an inflator, and also incorporates other functions found in some wrist-mounted dive computers or other devices, such as Gyro-compensated 3D compass, diving logger and USB connectivity for easy programming and data transfer.

The UDI functions at depths of more than 200 feet, and supports up to 14 divers on one UDI frequency, giving dive teams greater communications flexibility than ever before. A boat unit supports up to four networks using four different frequency ranges.

"The UDI is an essential tool for all divers, from recreational to professional to military," said Netta Kerem, UTC's president and chief executive officer. "It will quickly become a standard part of every diver's kit, because it cost-effectively improves every dive's reliability, range, and safety. Divers will benefit from UDI, thanks to its superior SOS range and the ability to trace and navigate to a diver in distress. There's simply nothing else like it at any price."

More information is available from the company's website, www.utc-digital.com.