Objectives of the service
“SWÖM with GPS” revolutionizes the safety around water for families with young kids. 1 out of 3 parents stated that they have been facing a potentially dangerous situation around water with their kids, and most of these situations are related to supervision failure where the child suddenly gets out of sight.
SWÖM with GPS offers a way to instantly react in case of emergency and therefore reduce risk of both fatal and non-fatal drowning accidents by implementing an alarm and tracking feature into their current integrated self-inflating technology. Parents are now alerted as soon as their kid’s suit is inflated, be able to access their exact location and, if necessary, follow a user-friendly navigation system to guide them to their kid in case of emergency. This system effectively helps both parents and emergency services to react quickly to save lives and avoid aggravating consequences.
Users and their needs
“SWÖM with GPS” is targeting parents of kids between 3 and 12 years old who are transitioning from using regular buoyancy aids to being autonomous in water. This device is meant to be used by families who are often in or around water and who seek both a high level of safety for their kids and an enhanced peace of mind in case of supervision failure.
This product is also indirectly used by emergency services and lifeguards who interact with the parents calling in case of emergency.
Lastly, this technology has also raised interest in the water sport users community especially amongst kayakers, surfers, open-water swimmers and wind-surfers for which intelligent and automatic inflation coupled with alarm & tracking features is valuable to facilitate rescue operations in case of emergency.
This system is meant to be used on a global scale, with an initial focus on Scandinavia.
Service/ system concept
“SWÖM with GPS” allows parents to provide greater freedom of movement to their kids while bringing safety up to the next level. The new alarm and tracking feature of this product helps parents to quickly act in case of a drowning situation by:
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Alerting them in case their child’s suit has inflated
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Providing the exact location in case the child is out of sight
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Providing a direct access to emergency calls in case assistance is needed quickly
The alarm and tracking system functions both through a user-friendly companion app and an additional portable device for those who would rather not bring their phone to the beach. If you are planning to go out in the wild where there is no internet network, no worries! This portable device also serves as a back-up in case your phone can’t pick up the internet network to connect to the suit.
This device relies on several mature telecommunication technologies, including Bluetooth and LoRaWan protocols to allow for a safe and reliable information transmission between the user’s phone, the portable device and the suit. Lastly, the tracking feature is highly reliable due to real-time satellite-based GPS data transmission.
Space Added Value
Our solution uses GNSS technology to provide accurate location data. A multiple frequency receiver collects data from all satellite’s constellations (GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS …) to ensure a reliable and global coverage.
The tracking system based on these space technologies allows for a quicker action from the parents and/or the emergency services in case of a drowning situation where the child cannot be located easily. These technologies are already well-developed in other industries such as open sea navigation and are sometimes used in mandatory safety devices. “SWÖM with GPS” aims to provide the same level of safety for kids around water.
As mentioned, this satellite-based tracking feature is also very desirable for water sport users, especially for sports like kayaking, surfing or open water swimming. Therefore, this space-based feature also allows SWÖM to open up the scope of their user segment.
Current Status
SWÖM is looking forward to releasing its first version of the self-inflating suit into the market and is already eagerly pursuing technical improvements. “SWÖM with GPS” is part of this improvement strategy which leads to an iterative product development process, to eventually reach a product that fulfils all user needs.
So far, 20 user interviews have been conducted in addition to several questionnaires that have reached up to 330 people located in Scandinavia. These users' insights have been valuable to develop a first system architecture that has been validated and discussed by several stakeholders, including parents and lifeguards.
Discussions with 2 important stakeholders have started to consider a possibility to develop SWÖM’s user segments in this field, namely Beuchat (water sports specialist developer and retailer) and Decathlon (sports retailer).
Prime Contractor(s)
