Electronic Life Jacket

[arpie]

Just reviving this thread from 2013/14 - cos it is a bloody good idea!! I only hope it DOES get on the market! Check out the Videos on Page 1

Ashley ( ashnery ) was working with the inventor of this 'automatic water pressure/time activated activated' life jacket that is part of a Rashie ........ If you read his posts on the 2nd page in particular - you will notice that Ahsley says it is highly unlikely that anyone falling in or diving to the bottom of a pool to retrieve something would set it off - as there is a 'time element' involved as well - this can be regulated to be less for children, or longer for adults - so that children can play in the pool without it going off ..... but able to go off if the child is submerged long enough & at a specific depth.

The Life Jacket will 'go off' if it detects that it has been under water at a depth of 1m for a specified time (eg 10 secs for adults) - and in field tests, shows that this is extremely difficult to do - staying under deep enough for long enough to do it by accident. SO ..... if a person is knocked unconscious into the water & starts to sink ...... once past the 1m depth & 10 second timing (or whatever you have specified it to be) the inflatable life jacket will 'go off' & return said person to the surface!

cheers

Roberta

[arpie]

Sadly - another good idea bites the dust - back in 2014, they ran an unsuccessful advert campaign on Channel 9 (that I missed! ) and only 10 units were sold ...... so the product has been shelved!

SHAME they didn't post on here to let us know about it ........ I reckon it was a brilliant idea!

Roberta

[Wind Waker]

Too true. What a ripper of an idea. The various watersport forums (yaks, jet skis, surfing etc) would have been a cheap way to generate interest and sales... Shame...

[moon.gallop]

hmmmm..interesting idea.

[Steve R]

It may be worth another attempt with compulsory rock-hopper life jacket rules looking set to become more draconian after a drowning not far from here recently.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-21/man-drowns-at-tathra-on-nsw-south-coast/8200572

Conditions on the day were really bad with a South Coast low pushing up large waves. From memory, wind gusts were something like 25kts. By the time you allow for 180% above 'normal' wave height in those conditions, there are not too many safe rock locations about. There was a warning.
http://www.edenmagnet.com.au/story/4417142/deceptively-powerful-surf-predicted-for-south-coast-this-weekend/

I didn't think it was even worth trying the sand that day.