NEPTUNE

Concept Beginnings

It happened one day during my first stint as a lifeguard when the idea hit me. It was a challenge to be on the constant lookout for distress swimmers but it feels good at the end to know that everyone was safe while having fun at the pool. Then a thought came, what if the CCTV cameras are smart enough to pick out early signs of distress in the swimming pool?

Issues with lifeguarding

One challenge which every lifeguard face is known as the field of view (FOV) limitation. For a lifeguard to identify distress cues at any point of time, it needs to happen within his FOV. Most pools are large and the lifeguard needs to constantly scan different zones of the pool. If a handful of lifeguards are placed on duty at the same time, it might be feasible for a zone intensive scanning to be implemented where every lifeguard is delegated a zone to watch which is within his/her FOV.

Without zone intensive scanning, a common scenario for most pools, a lifeguard would need to look back and forth at different zones to pick out signs of struggling. Moments could go by when the lifeguard has yet to look back at a zone when a struggling begins. Every moment counts when there is a need to make a rescue as the earlier a distressed swimmer is identified and rescued, the lesser is the likelihood of a permanent damage and the quicker is the recovery.

  

Drowning Numbers

Drowning is a real problem being classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury worldwide. In Singapore, an alarming 107 swimming pool drowning incidents were reported in just 3 years.

AI Concept

Combining both my hats of a lifeguard and a scientist, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique that identifies early drowning within 5s of struggling was born. It was coined as NEPTUNE which is an acronym for Near-drowning Early Prediction Technique Using Novel Equations. NEPTUNE was conceived as an aid for lifeguards in early identification of distressed swimmers so that the lifeguard can make an early rescue.