The revolutionary assistance system consists of a swimming cap with glasses, and is intended to help swimmers with their orientation in a swimming pool. The device, which is located on the cap, has a set of sensors that notify the swimmer wearing it about his or her orientation in the pool, the arrival at the end of the swimming route for the turn or the finish.
Additionally, the system includes a Bluetooth headset that can be connected to mobile devices and inform the swimmer using it about his or her timing and statistics.
“The goal is to give full autonomy to each swimmer with visual disability”, explained a student at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National and Technical University of Athens (NTUA).
“The athlete has the ability not only to align during the route, but also, to know when to make the turn and where to end the swimming race.”
“At the same time, through a gyroscope for orientation and an accelerometer for the timing of the route, the swimmer has the ability to know other information, and through the connection of the device, with a mobile internet of things type application, he or she will know at each end of training exactly the statistics of the race for further improvement,” Panagiota added.
The students, who are also members of the Swim.me team that promotes the sport of swimming around Greece, wanted to develop this innovative idea in order to encourage visually impaired people of all ages, amateurs and children, to get involved with swimming, regardless of the challenges that they might face.
“We are hoping that through this device they will have the opportunity not only to start at a young age, but also to further engage in swimming,” Panagiota highlighted.
