PLOOTA Seeks To Stop Swimmers From Drowning Using Sensor Technology
A new Kickstarter campaign has launched to fund the production of what is claimed to be the first automatic sensor controlled safety device that detects emergency situations in the water for swimmers.
PLOOTA, which is placed around a swimmer’s neck and already in prototype phase, works in two ways.
Firstly, its sensors, powered by a battery, can detect a drowning situation underwater or even if your head is submerged for more than 30 seconds and automatically releases two floating cushions. These are quite similar to water armbands in size and bring a swimmer to the surface safely. Secondly, a swimmer can manually deploy these cushions by pulling a trigger button on the left hand side of the device and again it will bring a troubled swimmer to the surface. These cushions are filled with carbon dioxide, which is integrated into the device using a disposable cartridge. Following such a deployment, the cushions can be deflated and reused again by placing them back into the device.
The inspiration for the product came from Rainer Fakesch, CEO and founder of PLOOTA, after a near drowning incident with his family. He co-founded the company with Melanie Weichel, who is also Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2015. With over 30 days to go until the end of the Kickstarter campaign, the company has raised over $33,950 from 133 backers against an overall target of $54,000.
“Swimmers often underestimate the dangers and hidden forces of the water. PLOOTA acts when an imminent drowning danger occurs,” said Franziska van Almsick, a German Olympic swimmer, who has the distinction of having the most career Olympic Games medals, 10, without ever winning a gold medal. Meanwhile, Thomas Lurz, a two time Olympic Games medal winner in swimming called the product “the helmet of water sports.”
The safety implications for such technology are clear as drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, with 360,000 people dying from it each year according to the World Health Organization (WHO). PLOOTA also taps into swimming’s position as the number one participation sport in many countries. In the U.K. in particular, it is the country’s most popular mass participation sport with 2.5 million people swimming during the week in 2015-16, who have access to 5,060 swimming pools across Britain.
The Kickstarter campaign, if successful, will be used primarily to enable production of the product, estimated to begin in August of this year, followed by the start of worldwide shipping in October, with the device estimated to cost $87 per unit.
