Are there any systems to quickly locate drowning person

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@dr_zippermeyer

I believe you could achieve this in most basic form by lowering to water a normal watertight Android phone with little floats. Adding an external antenna would be a great benefit though. And probably some fins to keep it more stable.

That’s a belief, not a cite. Drones with cellphones every 7 miles, along every shoreline of ocean, sea, lake and river in the nation, each one with a cellphone that must operate underwater and transmit its data from there.

Why not do a pilot study just using Lake Erie (the smallest Great Lake, a nice mix of urban and rural, high and low traffic) and see how it works? And what it costs?

[Ale]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

Do you have a cite for this assertion? It sounds neither easy nor cheap.

Been there, done that, sort of…

As you can see on the video if the camera had been mounted lower in a gimbal I could have easily looked around underwater with it. I was on a boat about 500 meters away, and I was still getting a clear video signal even though the transmitting antenna is mounted inside the fuselage, pretty much level with the surface of the water.

Now, instead of an airplane a multicopter could be used, with a camera mounted low under it, land, take a look and then take off to another position if nothing is found.

Mind you, I think it would be impractical, but not difficult or expensive (for certain values of “difficult” and “expensive”).
On the other hand just flying along a beach to find a person at or under the surface may not be a bad idea, at least as long as the water is not too murky.

[August_West]

@dr_zippermeyer

“In 1997, the National Safety Council placed the economic value of each unintentional
injury death at $790,000 and the comprehensive cost at $2,790,000 (National Safety
Council, 1997). Using the drowning figures from beaches in the USLA reporting system,
the comprehensive costs of drowning on coastlines in 1997 amounted to $273,420,000.”

How many life jackets would $273,420,000 buy?

[dr_zippermeyer]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

That’s a belief, not a cite.

When you glue small floats on waterproof phone and place it on water, you can take a video call to it and see what is happening underwater. Does that really need a cite? What is more controversial is can you get it working well enough in difficult conditions.

There seems to be many Android phones with built in antenna connector. https://www.telcoantennas.com.au/site/catalog/patch-leads/mobile-phone

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

Drones with cellphones every 7 miles, along every shoreline of ocean, sea, lake and river in the nation, each one with a cellphone that must operate underwater and transmit its data from there.

I corrected myself couple of posts ago, maybe you didn’t took notice. There is probably no need to buy and maintain drones that are only for this purpose. Fire department (and police, army etc) will have plenty of drones that can carry whatever is needed for each mission.

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

Why not do a pilot study just using Lake Erie (the smallest Great Lake, a nice mix of urban and rural, high and low traffic) and see how it works? And what it costs?

I’d love to! I live in Europe though, so some local lake would be better.

[dr_zippermeyer]

@August_West

How many life jackets would $273,420,000 buy?

That’s true. But how to make people wear them. And to be honest, I love to dive while swimming so I wouldn’t like it.

[dr_zippermeyer]

@Ale

Been there, done that, sort of…

As you can see on the video if the camera had been mounted lower in a gimbal I could have easily looked around underwater with it. I was on a boat about 500 meters away, and I was still getting a clear video signal even though the transmitting antenna is mounted inside the fuselage, pretty much level with the surface of the water.

Now, instead of an airplane a multicopter could be used, with a camera mounted low under it, land, take a look and then take off to another position if nothing is found.

Mind you, I think it would be impractical, but not difficult or expensive (for certain values of “difficult” and “expensive”).
On the other hand just flying along a beach to find a person at or under the surface may not be a bad idea, at least as long as the water is not too murky.

Haha, little accident. But really cool video and proof of concept! Interesting to know it transmitted even when partly submerged.