Diver-designed device enhances underwater safety - 2009

05 May 2009

It's a recreational diver's dream - a small, wearable, safety device which helps you easily locate the boat, your dive buddy or supervisor at any time during a dive.

'Exitpoint' is a concept for a sonar navigation and early warning system, designed by Queensland University of Technology industrial design graduate Tom Fraser, and is a finalist in the student category of the Australian International Design Awards - The James Dyson Award.

Mr Fraser, a former dive master, has been responsible for taking many groups of novice and experienced divers on underwater odysseys throughout Thailand, Indonesia and Australia and has witnessed many dangerous situations where the use of Exitpoint could have been extremely valuable.

"Poor diving conditions, namely strong currents and low visibility, can easily separate divers from each other and make it difficult for them to navigate their way safely back to their boat, buddy or supervisor if they get lost," Mr Fraser said.

"During my time as a dive master I often thought 'why isn't there something to prevent divers from becoming lost or separated and directs them to where they need to go if they do get lost?'."

"Exitpoint works by alerting divers with an alarm and a visual display if they are straying beyond a certain distance from their dive buddy, dive supervisor or boat.

"When divers receive an alert they can look around and visually locate them. If the diver can't see them they can then locate them using Exitpoint, while at the same time, their buddy and supervisor can look for them using their units."

Mr Fraser said Exitpoint could reduce a lot of time and stress for divers when monitoring their location and that of their dive companions or when navigating in unfamiliar surrounds to make recreational diving safer.

Exitpoint is worn on the back of the hand so as not to interfere with dive watches or dive computers. A key difference between it and existing navigational aids is that Exitpoint is designed to prevent divers from getting into situations where they would need to use it to locate a lost or stray diver.

"While some devices have been developed to assist divers in finding the boat at the end of a dive, many of these are limited in functionality and have often been criticised for being unreliable and inaccurate," he said.

"Exitpoint uses two-way broadband acoustic telemetry (adapted from autonomous underwater vehicles used in undersea exploration) to send signals between divers and the boat.

"Two-way broadband signalling allows the diver's identity and depth to be encoded into the signal and allows for a more accurate method of range and position estimation to be utilised by the system.

"This not only extends functionality but also makes calibration between units easier and allows a limitless number of units to be used in the system. It is also less prone to noise and other forms of interference which can severely affect sonar communication underwater."

Tom is one of 13 Australian designers competing in the global James Dyson Award against projects from 20 other nations including the UK, US, Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Italy.

Winners of the Australian Design Award - James Dyson Award will be announced at the Australian International Design Awards Presentation Night on Friday, May 29 2009. These have been selected by Dyson and a panel of industry experts.

From the June 16 - July 12 2009, Australians have the chance to get behind this project by logging onto www.jamesdysonaward.org and voting it as their favourite Australian entry in the James Dyson Award. The young designer with the highest rating will receive the Australian People's Choice trophy and progress to the final line-up, judged by James Dyson, for the chance to win the grand prize of around $20,000 for themselves and $20,000 for their university.

Media contact: Niki Widdowson, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.