design student wants to make scuba safer!

[SparticleBrane]

Lots of systems exist, but the best system is a simple roll call.

1. Everyone shuts the hell up and listens to the roll call.

Best answer yet.

 

[REII]

Lots of systems exist, but the best system is a simple roll call.

1. Everyone shuts the hell up and listens to the roll call.

2. Everyone answers for themself only.

3. Person conducting the roll call hears and sees each person as they answer.

4. Roll call is conducted at the dock before the boat goes out.

5. Roll is conducted after every dive.

If those simple rules are followed, no one is ever left behind.

I agree with Walter. This is such a basic system, and can be done in and area, and on any dive boat, anchored or drift diving.

I do not understand how the divers were left behind in that movie Open Water other than by lack of this type of check.

Oh, and my safety item would be a water proof cell phone or radio that a diver could carry and use on the surface in the event that they were left behind. It may have to be a satellite phone too.

TOM

 

[pete340]

I have a vague idea for a product/system to ensure diver safety. It could be to prevent divers being stranded and left behind like in that movie 'Open Water'. Possibly along the links of a tag worn by the diver to help location/ communication etc.

What sort of products along these lines exist? how do you feel they could be improved?

My open water class in Australia was on a liveaboard. There were three levels of checking:

1. Your buddy makes sure you get out of the water
2. Divemaster logs each buddy pair in and out of the water
3. Each person has a safety number. Before leaving the site, the skipper goes around with a clipboard, asking each person for his safety number, looking him up on the list, and verifying his name.

 

[Steve_Dives]

You might consider using RFID tags. Depending on the radio frequency the tag is built for, you can vary the range from almost contact out to many feet. The tag could be secured to the tanks, like the bar codes. This would allow the dive shop/operator to track the tank for inspections, which tank went to which boat, etc. in addition to the "are all the tanks the left my boat back on it?" question.

The design work might be in the reader. A wrist mounting sensor that gets near the tank valve when the dive master or assistant assist the diver into the water / check the tank valve might be the way to go.

Labels that stick and the durability could be something to consider. The tag itself does not need a power source (it gets that from the reader's RF broadcast), but since the tanks receive such gentle treatment...

The advantage of the RFID is it does not require line of sight.

 

[fyh]

RFID's.........only until all ID's are checked back in, the 'green light' (could be a counter referenced to a start number) tells the captain to star the engines. I would not make starting prohibitive since they may need to start the engines to look for strays.

I already have the patent.......
;-)

That's exactly what I immediately thought of!
Waterproof RFID tags that could be issued to each diver on the boat and small enough to clip onto a BC and not be in the way.

On a large boat, the checkout/checkin process could be automated by having an electronic 'gate' (scanner) at the entry/exit point of the boat.

 

[lowwall]

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/news/article.asp?newsid=444

This has an image of an earlier version of the DAN board and also basic info about strandings. The new boards are red with white squares where the red tags are placed (or the reverse). Any holes are very readily apparent.

From a design viewpoint, you need a system that is easy enough to use that people won't just ignore it, that ensures only those who board are entered, and that doesn't create its own hazards. For example using a RFID system that requires a crewmember to scan each diver as they return to the boat could slow down reentry enough to be dangerous in poor conditions. The crewmember having to use a hand to operate the reader and moving the focus of his/her attention to the reader to make sure a hit was recorded are also possible hazards. OTOH, setting it to automatically register everyone within x feet would result in false positives from people right next to the hull but still in the water.

I guess you could mount the reader just past the top of the ladder and have it give nice double beep with each entry. But, you'd need a backup for those who managed to miss the mounted reader. Plus, since you only know who got back on, you'd have to account for those who never left the boat in the first place (skipped the dive). You'd also have to have some way to ensure that no one entered the water without a functioning tag. This is also a root problem with the DAN board approach.

Frankly, I think the most foolproof system is a roll call with a safety number or password response (instead of the usual "Yep.") to keep someone else from answering for you by mistake. It leaves the OP without a project though. How about designing the perfect bag system for taking your gear on a boat? That's an issue that sorely needs to be addressed.

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

My AOW instructor used the DAN board. It worked well for us.

 

[Walter]

We've had a simple, yet extremely effective, system since long before SCUBA was invented. If people don't (and many don't) use it, another, more complicated, system is not more likely to be used.

 

[lowwall]

On a large boat, the checkout/checkin process could be automated by having an electronic 'gate' (scanner) at the entry/exit point of the boat.

While entry points are usually well defined on a boat, exit points are not, especially on smaller boats. Also an automatic reader system is always going to miss people unless you put in a turnstile that only unlocks when it gets an entry (like most subway systems or reader-secured doors in an office). In other words, you'd have to partially design the boat around the system, with an entry/exit area only accessible through a secured passage.

There is also the other obvious problem of keeping electronics working in saltwater environments. Finally, how confident would you be in a 100% automated system? Enough to say, "The computer says everyone is aboard. Let's head out."?

 

[cpe111]

Dont like the idea of RFID tags - yet another piece of technology that could break. Not too bad if it breaks and shows a person missing - I'd hate it to break showing everyone was back on the boat.

KISS - roll call and visual verification.