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Engineer Develops Sonar Alarm System To Monitor Kids In the Pool (newatlas.com)
British electrical engineer John Barstead created a sonar alarm system that will warn parents or nearby sunbathers if a small child has accidentally fallen into a pool. The Dolphin Alarm, as it is called, is currently raising production funds on Kickstarter. New Atlas explains how it works: When small children who have no business going into the pool on their own are out playing near it, they wear a special wristband. If they should fall in, the wristband will generate a three-tone sonar signal as soon as it's immersed in the water. That signal will be detected by a hydrophone contained within a receiver unit that floats in the pool. When that happens, the unit will emit a 131-decibel alarm. It will also transmit an alert to an indoor remote unit located up to 150 m away (170 ft), which will likewise sound an alarm of its own. While there are other child-in-the-pool alarms, most of them are wave-activated and have to be shut off when other people are using the pool.
Now we no longer need to pay any attention to our kids when they're near a swimming pool. We have technology to do it for us!
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Just use the standard sonar signature of the pool and alarm if it changes.
Ponds are for fish, not little kids.
The wristband is the flaw. A kid who isn't supposed to go into the pool isn't going to wear their special wristband, especially if it isn't their pool.
If it depends on the kid wearing a "water activated" wristband of some sort, it's a bit of a non-starter. The kid learns first that if he drags his arm through the water, big excitement ensues. Next he learns that if he takes the wristband off and throws it in the pool, even greater amusement ensues. Finally, the parents get rid of the thing out of irritation.
That is all.
If the kid isn't wearing the associated wristband, and doesn't take it off, then the alarm sounds when it goes in the pool.
The neighbour kid, or your friends kids, or your own kids that aren't happy to wear a massive wristband around 24/7 can drown all they like.
The hundreds of existing wave based devices are bad because they will go off if other people are using the pool... other people that will watch a toddler fall into the pool and drown I guess.
This is a joke, right? Please tell me this is a joke. I am rapidly losing faith in humanity.
If the problem is unsupervised children falling into a pool, the solution is a fence.
After several minutes thought I find it rather hard to figure out the market for this product:
* It requires modification of the pool environment, but is inferior to wave based child detection systems because it also requires,
* Modification of the child via a large battery powered wrist strap, but is inferior to a leash because they can still fall in pools
It also looks suspiciously like vapourwear:
* no examples of it in operation
* all depictions of the prototype are actually renders
* any time the product is depicted "in use" it is a still photo with photoshop modifications
Easier cheaper solution; just use one of those really loud personal alarms and replace the pull out switch with a water sensor... and watefproof it. It works in your pool or your neighbors and lakes, oceans or rivers too.
I would think a wave-activated device, coupled with a security camera and some sort of mobile or web app, would be great (if I had a pool, which I don’t). It would work for neighborhood kids, which this wouldn’t. And, if I were away from the house, I could still call for emergency responders were it warranted.
This new “invention” seems like something we could’ve had in the 1960s. The only reason it’s even here is probably the word “KickStarter”. Hey, @whipslash, please consider adding the ability to filter out KickStarter stories, the way we can other subjects.
#DeleteChrome
An use for this technology would be to supplement the daily watch on board a ship.
During a man overboard situation the remote alarm would at least warn you someone has fallen overboard. The event time vs ship location is essential and immediate response is critical. Yes, you are supposed to maintain a watch however I assume the watch team won't see everything.
Thoughts, comments, feedback?
So, OK, ... this lets you know your unattended kid just drowned in the pool? I mean, at that point you might as well just wait until you go out to check and see the corpse floating around.
get a dog if you're not going to watch your kids
Shock Collars and invisible fencing should protect your children quite nicely. And provide a handy guide for your robotic mower, which totally would never kill people instead of cutting grass. /s
A much better idea would be a to have adults wear the sonar device to act as an inhibit for a wave based alarm sensor.
Supervision is the first line of defense followed very closely by 4 sided barriers.
Our state has very strict mandatory fencing laws enforced by inspection and they work.
A device that needs wrist bands and batteries and detectors in a harsh pool environment. No thanks, wouldn't want that liability as a manufacturer.
46137
Can it electrocute children when the DolphinAlarm's cables are connected to there at the pool?
Make it out of potassium. A bracelet made of Special K will make a modest audible alarm on contact with water.
This depends on attaching a special wrist band on the small child - that's the wrong way around. It won't raise an alarm if the child has removed the wrist band, or if the parent or guardian forgot to put the wristband onto the child.
TFS says that wave-based alarms have to be turned off when other people use the pool.
Why not have it set up so that the alarm only ignores waves when they come from people wearing the wrist band? That way it would raise an alarm when anyone NOT wearing a band falls or jumps into the pool. Has the bonus of raising an alert when a drunk adult topples into the pool :-)
Unless the wrist band falls off
or It's battery goes flat
or it gets damaged
or someone forgets to put it on
or it gets dirty and the ultrasonic transducer doesn't make a sound
or it gets dirty and the water detector doesn't trigger
or the detection microphone is fouled
or the floating detectors battery goes flat
There is already a solution for this problem. You can buy a system that detects disturbances in the water. They automatically arm themselves when the water is calm, you temporarily disarm it when you use the pool and it rearms automatically then you stop disturbing the water.
When something disturbs the water, like a child falling in, an alarm is triggered.
They're designed by real engineers to solve this specific problem as an alternative for pool fencing where it's legal or in addition to it as extra protection.
They're designed to protect all kids, not just the ones you remembered to attach a wristband to.
I fail to see a market for this and I hope no one gets lulled into a false sense of security by it.
The problem is it's the kids who die when the parents fail.
If the parents died, then the problem would solve itself
It really inspires confidence in a safety product when the website describing its operation says "When the wrist band makes contact with water the transmitter sends an acoustic signal to the pool alarm which emits a loud penetrating"
Penetrating what? Tentacle to rescue your drowning child?
It's not even an HTML rendering issue, it's an image.
They also feel the need to state "WRISTBAND TRANSMITTER - The Wristband is worn on the wrist" Where else do you wear a wristband?
The problem is it's the kids who die when the parents fail.
They have the same DNA, so in the long run the result is the same.
If the parents died, then the problem would solve itself
Evolution doesn't work that way.
Small children should not be allowed to do their business in the pool. But that's reality, which is why I don't go into public pools.
Because we had that shit back in the 70's.
And yes they still sell them. "Pool alarm" $150 on amazon. No stupid wristbands needed either.
Just because a parent its stupid, doesn't mean their children can't be better parents (providing they survive long enough to be a parent).
What's this got to do with evolution?
And if they dont eat it or disolve it in water they get 2 sugar cubes.
They forgot one thing to compare with the other products
Complies with pool alarm safety standards:
Aquaguard: Yes
Poolguard: Yes
Safety Turtle: Not sure
Pool Sonix: Not sure
Dolphin Alarm: No
There have been products that detect anything falling into the water for years; they're basically floating tilt-sensors that respond to waves and sound an alarm. No wristband needed.
Software Shouldn't Suck
E-mail: frank at jacquette dot spamless com (remove the spamless!)
Maybe have an alarm system that activates every time it detects anyone in the pool. Have the system make a voice announcement (like "marco") 10s before sounding the 131 whatever dBA alarm. During the 10s anyone can disable it by speaking out loud some kind of trigger word - like "polo".
Have it reset itself and require the trigger word to be spoken again every 15 minutes or so, or maybe if it detects no-one in the pool. Bonus points if it triggers the alarm immediately for any other keyword like "help" or "waaaaaaa" or "glg lg glllg gasp".
For all I know it could be programmed into Alexa
Nullius in verba
This product http://safetyturtle.com/ claims to have been around since the late 90s and I am sure there are other similar wristband type products that detect pool ingress.
Brilliant!
I bet first round funding will be well over 100M.
All they have to figure out is how to get every child in the country a wrist band.... .
Yes, I know walls aren't popular but they do tend to work on small children.
I like technological fixes as much as the next Slashdot reader, but I think this particular problem is a tricky one to solve with 100% reliability... and of course anything with "only" 99.9% reliability is going to get sued into the ground after the first failure, regardless of whether the failure was actually due to human error or not..
My recommendation (either instead of installing a gadget or perhaps in addition to it) would be to make sure any kid who is big enough to potentially get to the pool has also taken lessons on how to stay alive once in the pool (and ideally also how to exit the pool safely).
That way, even if the gadget fails, the kid still has a pretty good chance of survival.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Honestly, I'm less than impressed by a flawed design that require the kid to wear something.
I'm surprised nobody made some sort of sensor (heat, light curtain, motion detection, sound recognition etc.) that will have a near perfect efficiency (or anything better than a fence around the pool). And why not coupling this to an emergency drain connected to the aqueduct to empty the pool in case the alarm isn't aknowledged in like 1 min (to give the time in case of a false alarm in the middle of the night).
Honestly, I'm less than impressed by a flawed design that require the kid to wear something.
I'm surprised nobody made some sort of sensor (heat, light curtain, motion detection, sound recognition etc.) that will have a near perfect efficiency (or anything better than a fence around the pool). And why not coupling this to an emergency drain connected to the aqueduct to empty the pool in case the alarm isn't aknowledged in like 30 sec (to give the time in case of a false alarm in the middle of the night).
Elok
With the planet being overpopulated by more than 5B people, we can afford to have the child and the parents go, that would work better for evolution
I'm just surprised this was invented before they could create some kind of barrier that would prevent small children from reaching the pool. It could even have a function where part of the barrier would separate and allow people through. That function could even be operated by a mechanism that is high enough off the ground that small children couldn't reach it.
You know, like a fence... with a gate. Which is required by law around all pools in Australia. But I know, regulations are bad.... mkay?
Does it come with a roll of bubble wrap and a crash helmet too?
Health and safety gone mad!
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
And bathing together with them until they can swim.
Sometimes tech solves problems that don't exist. At least not for people with common sense.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Isn't he just...
Interesting idea, but pool guarding systems based only on video is pretty common. Like PoolView, SwimEye, AngelEye among others. It has existed for many years. As a matter of fact, my brother used to code for one of these systems. It's all underwater video monitoring with pattern detection and works fairly well.
The only scenario where I could see this sonar-version would be practical is in Hotel resorts or other closed areas where visiting kids are given this wristband and then left to roam the premises unattended. Going for private households might be the angle required for Kickstarter, but all in all this seems like a product more suited for the business market, IMHO.
indoor remote unit located up to 150 m away (170 ft),
Err - about 490 ft . I hope his engineering is better than his kitchen math.
Requiring bracelets, not user friendly.
Install sonar in the pool itself, anyone in the pool creates a vibration, noise
Is it just me that it's bothering that it will have a further range if you use it in metric than in imperial?
This is the wrong solution to the wrong problem. If you can't afford to hire a full-time lifeguard, you can't afford to have a pool at home. Join the YMCA. If you're wealthy enough that you can afford to have a staff of lifeguards on duty, you don't need this. Swimming pools are a means for middle-class people to pretend they're wealthy in lieu of building real wealth. You should be able to staff the pool for under $100k/year which is less than you pay the pilot for your jet.
...try to sell the wristband as a tsunami warning system.
you mean to tell me that human children can't breath water?!
The invasion planning committee will be quite interested in this bit of intelligence!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I jus want to say one thing. This thing needs to have two identical systems on the wristband, two floats and two receivers in house. Anything plugged in should have a battery backup.
Is there an alarm for when you forgot to put the wrist band on them?
150 meters is more like 487 feet, not 170. Come on man.
Umm, 150 meters is 492 feet, not 170. Whomever did this math obviously couldn't use the "meters to feet conversion" of Google.
Adult supervision is the top priority, but given that inattention happens, a couple comments on achieving decent pool safety.
For toddlers too little to understand rules, you need properly functioning fences and self-closing gates. Don't let anyone bring a toddler inside the gate unless you have reason to believe they (the adult) are capable of proper supervisory action.
For older kids, idiots will die. For your own kids, get them swimming lessons, and even more important teach them that they are never ever to go to the pool without an adult present. Again, idiots will die.
In fact, adults should observe the same rule: never ever go swimming, anywhere, without another capable adult present. I know of people who drowned after suffering a heart attack or an epileptic fit while swimming alone.
People who can't follow safety rules die. YCFS
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
There is already a law to fence off any pools in my state. In my mind a simple camera over the fenced in area that notifies the parent would suffice. Making a child wear a wristband, right there is a huge flaw. I could go into more detail, but let's face it all they need is a good marketing campaign. Every parent with a pool that doesn't have one will feel like a fool.
While there are other child-in-the-pool alarms, most of them are wave-activated and have to be shut off when other people are using the pool.
This is better.... the kid doesn't have to wear a special watch that could accidentally be lost, OR the kid could take it off, or the parent forgets to attach it, OR there are not enough watches available for the number of kids.
My suggestion:
(1) Use the simple wave-activated alarm devices
(2) Put a good fence around your pool with gated access and latches on outside the gates above reach of young children. No unattended children have access to the fenced-in area. They can play outside the fence
(3) Cover the pool area itself with motion detectors and a monitored intrusion alarm
(4) Keep locked with code required to open the gate from outside while nobody is using the pool.
(5) OK... fine the new wristwatch-based alarm toy might be suitable for children while attended with multiple adults present: to draw quick attention to the problem in case an accident occurs.
When small children who have no business going into the pool on their own are out playing near it, they wear a special wristband.
This idea is already useless. I'm trying to think of a person who is so terribly irresponsible as to let a small child play out near a pool alone, yet responsible enough to install this piece of equipment and remember to put on the wristband every single time the kid goes out to play alone near a pool.
182 comments and no one mentions it exists already? "The Safety Turtle Child Kit is a pool monitoring system that uses wristbands and pet adapters to track children and pets to make sure they are not in the pool. When the wristband or adapter gets wet, the Safety Turtle sounds an alarm to ensure that you know someone is in the pool" http://safetyturtle.com/safety...
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
... teach the kid to swim. Mine could retrieve rings from the bottom of my 9' deep pool at 2.5 yrs. More than once in a row, even.
I don't want to get up earlier than necessary to save the little basterd.
who'd dog tag his child to wear a wirstband all the time?
And part of me imagines someone getting annoyed at the beeping and turning it off w/o even looking. (and then blaming the company that made this)
Nobody else notice this?
This requires active safety (ie, something attached to a kid), which already assumes you know the kid is in the area and near the pool.
The vast majority of child drownings tend to involve children who no one knew was anywhere near a pool in the first place. In the case of kids playing in pools supposedly supervised, wristbands come off (for that matter, children will take them off!). A lot of cases are neighbours kids playing around the pool and in some cases have scaled the security fence. (It's not going to help in the case of the neighbours' cat either)
This is the wrong solution to the problem and may actually make things worse by engendering a false sense of security. Short of some kind of retractable cover capable of being walked on and incapable of letting anything fall through I don't know what the solution is (and I suspect that such a solution would still not save everyone)
It doesn't use block chain. How can it be secure without block chain?
Also, Alexa. How can you release anything in this day and age that isn't voice activated?
Stupid.
Should we really trust the safety of our children with an engineer who canâ(TM)t even convert 150m to the proper footage (its approx 492ft, in case youâ(TM)re reading this)? Or maybe this technology is actually being adapted from the Tardis.......Doctor? Is that you?
A meter is more or less a yard... 150m is 150x3~450ft (Google says 492ft). Conversely, 170 ft is about 60m (Google: 52m). It's kind of easy to run 50m/170ft... probably the 150m/500ft figure is more accurate.
You do one bad deed: satisfaction for one day, a weekend, two weeks maximum.
You do one good deed and get satisfaction for an entire life -- even when you consider that other folks could have done it, too.
Well done, lifeguard. Whatever the guy is doing now, nobody can take that from you.
I guess saving lives beats knowing Math, too... ;-)