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This is interesting technology, however I fear it will breed complacency in lifeguards. I worked as a lifeguard off and on for a few years when I was in highsc

This is interesting technology, however I fear it will breed complacency in lifeguards. I worked as a lifeguard off and on for a few years when I was in highschool and college so I can say from experience, sneaking boredom is a problem you have to actively guard yourself against. It's a job where 99.999% of the time nothing bad happens, but you're supposed to be ready for that 0.001% in an instant; that's easier said than done. I'm not sure a system like this would have a productive effect on lifeguards. If these systems are coupled with the right sort of training, they might be a net benefit. Or maybe the system could be designed in such a way that requires the lifeguard to stay attentive, such as requiring the lifeguard to input the current headcount. If the lifeguard's headcount starts to disagree with the computer's, that could be a signal that the lifeguard has become fatigued and needs to call in another lifeguard or call people out of the pool. (If the system isn't accurate enough to be used in this way, then perhaps it's not ready for use at all.)

jlg23 6y ago
> I'm not sure a system like this would have a productive effect on lifeguards. > If these systems are coupled with the right sort of training, they might be a net benefit. Or maybe the system could be designed in such a way that requires the lifeguard to stay attentive, such as requiring the lifeguard to input the current headcount. I too worked as a lifeguard and I think only a really bad implementation can have a counter-productive effect. Spontaneously, I can think of sunglasses with AR-overlay and a feedback loop: * mark all people in field of view, color coded * let lifeguard acknowledge/ignore problems * allow for "problem"-handover to next post (e.g. if busy or if it is a swimmer in a current) What definitely does not help is to have lifeguards behind monitors because they'd miss out on 99% of the real daily "action": dealing with littering, violence, ordinance violations, answering questions, pointing new arrivals towards safe zones....

jlg23 6y ago

> I'm not sure a system like this would have a productive effect on lifeguards. > If these systems are coupled with the right sort of training, they might be a net benefit. Or maybe the system could be designed in such a way that requires the lifeguard to stay attentive, such as requiring the lifeguard to input the current headcount. I too worked as a lifeguard and I think only a really bad implementation can have a counter-productive effect. Spontaneously, I can think of sunglasses with AR-overlay and a feedback loop: * mark all people in field of view, color coded * let lifeguard acknowledge/ignore problems * allow for "problem"-handover to next post (e.g. if busy or if it is a swimmer in a current) What definitely does not help is to have lifeguards behind monitors because they'd miss out on 99% of the real daily "action": dealing with littering, violence, ordinance violations, answering questions, pointing new arrivals towards safe zones....