No Diver Left Behind

[DiveNav]

Seems like a very simmilar to the DAN diver tag system + a stopwatch. ....

Plus water sensor, pressure sensor, temperature sensor and fast ascent alarm .... and an app that automatically shows the captain in real time who is on the boat and who is not.

...... but a diver CAN forget to return the tag to the boat, potentially driving up costs for the captain......

Not really.
At the beginning of the trip, the captain / DM assigns a sensor to a diver. Each sensor has a unique ID and the captain / DM has the option to enter in the app name / picture of the diver. Basically the captain could know exactly which diver has which sensor.
If the diver comes back to the boat without a sensor then the captain will see that diver on the app as missing. I bet the captain will go looking for him/her before going to bed ....
If the diver comes back to the boat with the sensor but then s/he does not return it to the captain, the moment s/he walks away from the boat (back at the dock ... going to the car) the app will detect that sensor as missing. It will be up to the captain to decide what to do then .... chase the customer .... call the customer the day after and ask him/her to return the sensor .... charge the customer for the sensor .....

...... Actually, having a unique and automatic timer for each diver is a nice idea, too. Especially for boats with mixed passengers, like a spearfishing group getting dropped on the opposite side of the reef from tourists where drop time will vary a good bit.

That is one of the reasons we designed the system this way

 

[undrwater]

How are they powered? How long do they last? How do they attach to the diver?

 

[gr8jab]

The pressure sensor allows the dive team leader to review the dive parameters (max depth, average depth, minimum temperature, dive time and fast ascent alarm) as soon as the device becomes visible to the app.

Ah... I didn't get that part until now. I was only thinking single function. How narrow minded of me. I have that problem frequently.

In essence, it could be a post-dive analysis computer, even doing group dive planning. You could program all sorts of triggers and warnings. BOLD RED for those who skipped the safety stop.

"Hey Bob! Your last dive was very long. Either the group has to choose a different site, or add 30 min to the surface interval."

or

"I was going to take you all to The Grotto next, but Jim blew his ascent rate again. Now we'll just do Riprap instead."

Sorry... just having fun.

But still, gotta make that sweet spot price point to get adoption rates high. I'm sure it is a process, as the product matures, maybe has a few redesigns and cost reductions, it grows in popularity. Volumes increase and costs decrease....

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Hey, as another thought (that doesn't really specifically benefit your business), I could envision that personal dive computers could have this feature built in. Imagine every dive computer having connectivity to the 'boat computer'. This calls for some type of industry wide working group to develop a standard communications protocol for linking dive computers to boat computers. Maybe IEEE and PADI could spearhead things.... I know... pipe dream.

 

[DiveNav]

How are they powered? .....

bluebuddy includes a 1000mAh Li-Ion battery

.... How long do they last? ....

We estimate 3 to 5 years depending on use.
We have units in the field since 2013 and very few have returned for maintenance so far.
Yesterday I was at USC Wrigley where they use (or abuse) our devices quite regularly since early 2014 (every scientific diver using their facility is issued a bluebuddy). While there I checked few units ... they had more than 300 logs in them and, at least, 80% battery available. Not bad.

...How do they attach to the diver?

With a stainless steel split ring

 

[rmssetc]

Plus water sensor, pressure sensor, temperature sensor and fast ascent alarm .... and an app that automatically shows the captain in real time who is on the boat and who is not.

. and an app that automatically shows the captain in real time which sensors are on the boat and which sensors are not.
​

There, I fixed that error for you.

Unless you're talking about some kind of medically implanted sensor, the captain will only know which sensors are on-board. I haven't been diving for very long, but I've seen people accidently swap BCDs between dives (all rental gear is the interchangable, right?), add/remove exposure layers, forget to put on their computer before backrolling off the boat, etc. That doesn't give me high confidence about a reliable correspondence between a small, unobtrusive sensor (which I assume clips to a BCD or has a wristband) and the person who's supposed to be carrying the thing. Heck, there are dozens of reports here of people who've lost all sort of things...cameras, wedding rings, etc. What make the sensor different?

Don't get me wrong, I like technology, I was happy to be an early user of the Cootwo, and this sounds like a nifty idea. It also sonds like a complicated technological solution to problems that can--and have already. been--solved with a clipboard and some strictly followed procedures.

I wonder if the captains who'd buy this are the right audience ... anyone who would purchase this system already knows about the problem of keeping track of divers...if they can't do it with a pencil & paper, then will tech really help...and, if they care enough to use this system, are they already doing a good enough job that it only adds the cool time/depth/temp data (that are probably already in the diver's computer).

 

[DiveNav]

. and an app that automatically shows the captain in real time which sensors are on the boat and which sensors are not. ........​

Of course the system tracks the sensors and not the people ..... but, if the sensor is attached to the BCD of a diver (or to the tank itself as someone suggested), the only reasons why the system should not be able to track that specific diver is that the diver jumped in the water without a BCD (or without a tank) or s/he is using someone else BCD (or tank). In the second case, the system will still be tracking that diver (but with a different sensor).

.....Don't get me wrong, I like technology, I was happy to be an early user of the Cootwo, ......

Thank you!

..... It also sonds like a complicated technological solution to problems that can--and have already. been--solved with a clipboard and some strictly followed procedures.....

I am not completely sure that the clipboard has completely solved the problem as there are still situations of divers that are left behind ....
One advantage that this system has over the clipboard is the capability to notify when a diver is due back to the boat.
Let's assume we have a boat with 40 divers on it. You could have a situation where by the time the last diver jumps in the water the first diver is already coming back. Let's now assume that the first diver is running into some problems ....
With a clipboard you would do the roll-call before moving the boat (when all the divers are supposed to be back) and you would find out only then that the first diver is late. But with this system the captain / DM could know quite in advance that the first diver is having issues.
This system provides information that would not be available with a clipboard.
What the captain / DM does with that information is up for debate.

 

[DiveNav]

.......Hey, as another thought (that doesn't really specifically benefit your business), I could envision that personal dive computers could have this feature built in. Imagine every dive computer having connectivity to the 'boat computer'. .....

bluebuddy is a dive computer .... without the display
But yes, there are lots of features that dive computers don't have yet but eventually will incorporate ... I would say 10 to 20 years from now

...... This calls for some type of industry wide working group to develop a standard communications protocol for linking dive computers to boat computers. .....

I am all in favor of standard communication protocols .... I spent most of my careers in (semiconductor) companies were we were making standards (analog modems up to 56K, DSL, HomePNA, HomePlug, WiFi ....). I doubt this is going to happen in the diving industry

 

[Capt Scotty]

Interested...send me more info....

 

[DiveNav]

Interested...send me more info....

Thank you for your interest.
PM sent

 

[undrwater]

Does the sensor notify the app of battery charge remaining? Are the batteries replaceable / rechargeable in the field?