DeepBlink 

Identifying the Problem:
According to the National Drowning Report for 2002, drowning is the second leading cause for unintentional deaths among Canadians under the age of 15 (Canadian Lifesaving Society, 2002). One factor that contributes to this is the difficulty in locating or spotting endangered swimmers. Although lifeguards are present at all public pools, and parents are usually at hand in backdoor pools, it is very easy to miss a drowning victim. The Canadian Red Cross Society states that it takes less than 12 seconds for a child to drown—often supervisors never realize a distressed swimmer until it is too late (1999).

Problem Statement:
Endangered swimmers, particularly young children, are often difficult to locate in water. This is most common in public pools, where the water can become crowded with many active swimmers.

Goals:
This product is designed to lower the number of children who drown each year. By ensuring the implementation of DeepBlink™, lifesaving personnel will be assisted in their duties, making swimming safer.

Objectives:
To build a device that will help achieve a higher rescue rate of distressed swimmers in swimming pools.

Criteria:

This product must be:
• environmentally friendly
• portable
• visually stimulating (more specifically—to the supervisor)
• inexpensive (less than $30.00)
• simple to operate
• comfortable and flexible
• uninhibiting to the child while swimming

Constraints:

This product must be:
• operable by children
• lightweight (under 300 g)
• waterproof
• safe for all individuals in the swimming area

Alternate Solutions:

During the design process several other solutions were considered:
1. Life-Vest:
   • inflates when a distressed swimmer struggles
   • relies on CO2 cartridge
   • lifts the child to the surface
   • does not inhibit the child’s ability to swim
2. Signalling Buoys:
   • vibrant Styrofoam pieces float to the surface when a child is drowning
   • draws the supervisors’ attention to drowning child
3. Ink Cartridge:
   • brightly coloured ink is deployed from a cartridge when a child begins to drown

Prototyping & Testing
During the design process, several prototypes were constructed:

1. Stage One
   A rough prototype was developed to test the brightness of simple LED lights in murky water. The prototype was made from a blinking LED and a Ziploc bag. Upon testing, it was found that the single LED was not bright enough to illuminate the murky water.
2. Stage Two
   A second prototype was developed to experiment and determine if a camera flash would be more visible than the previous prototype in murky water. The experiment proved to be successful, and the flashing light was clearly visible.
3. Stage Three
   The third prototype designed demonstrated the function of a fully operational circuit board that operated two alternately blinking LED lights. The setup worked properly and the circuitry was successful.
4. Stage Four
   The fourth stage of prototyping focused on showing how the belt and light components would be oriented. A rough, adjustable belt was made with four marked places on it to indicate the future position of the LEDs.