It started off as a treasure hunt. Sifting through a magazine from the 1970's, Eric Stackpole pointed out an article to David Lang that hinted at the location of a pile of gold that has been missing for more than 100 years.

"There was this story that there was a robbery and gold was thrown to the bottom of this underwater cave and all of these treasure hunters and scuba divers, no one was able to get to the bottom, so Eric had this big idea that he was going to build this underwater robot to go explore," said Lang, co-founder of Open ROV, a California start up that specializes in the design and manufacture of underwater drones.

Over the past four years the company has developed several prototypes for exploring the ocean and is now putting the finishing touches on their latest design.

Called Trident, it's basically a waterproof smart phone with thrusters that can operate 100 meters (328 ft.) underwater. It sends a video signal, as well as temperature, depth, and directional information to the surface in real time via a tether connected to a wireless buoy. That buoy is connected to the internet, allowing the robot to be controlled from afar.