Industrial - Bachelor

Guardian Pool Alarm

The Guardian Pool Alarm is a solar powered floating device that tracks activity above and under the water. The AI assisted camera software can accurately track if a person may be at risk of drowning. If dangers in the pool are detected, specific audio and visual alarm cues will alert bystanders.

Noah Turnbull

The problem

Swimming in the pool can be a great time. Unfortunately, drowning remains the leading cause of mortality for children under 4 years of age in Australia (Abbassi et al., 2024). The lack of parental supervision is among the biggest contributors to drowning incidents. Minor lapses in supervision present a major risk, as swimmers only have their own knowledge and abilities to rely on when alone. This is especially dangerous for infants and toddlers who are still developing their gross motor skills.

To make matters worse, the renowned pool safety guidelines that Australia have implemented are not reflected globally. These findings clearly indicate that there are significant barriers in protecting young children from dangerous pool scenarios.

How might we enhance poolside supervision to ensure young children are safe around the water?

Research

Two pie charts are pictured. The left reads as follows: 'Is there any furniture, tall trees or other climbable objects near your pool fence?' Thirty-six percent said yes, fifty-five percent said no and nine percent said unsure. 'Five out of eleven of participants noted they may have climbable objects near their pool.' The right pie chart reads as follows: 'Have you ever seen or visited another pool with questionable safety standards?' Sixty-four percent said yes, thirty-six percent said no. 'Seven out of eleven participants have visited a pool with questionable safety standards.'

In my research, I hosted a survey for parents who have a pool in their backyard. From the eleven responses recorded, seven participants noted that they have visited a pool with questionable safety standards. Fencing was by far the most problematic safety approach ignored. Climbable objects were also observed in two instances. Most of these instances were observed at another person’s house. One person cited an unsafe pool at a private accommodation. This ties back to secondary research that corroborates that most child drownings occur in swimming pools.

I also conducted three interviews with stakeholders from different occupations. The interviewees all agreed that pools on their own have a lot of safety regulations implemented, at least in Australia. Despite this, drowning risks usually arise due to poor supervision or overestimating swimming ability. Clearly, pools can become very dangerous when proper measures are not implemented.

When I’m in the backyard, I don’t carry my phone with me. [I’d] prefer an audible alarm.

Parent

Most pools have got good safety guidelines around them. The issue with pools is simply around just monitoring children at the end of the day.

Pool builder

You want to prevent things going bad before they can wherever you can.

Lifeguard

the complete report

Name
Research Report – Researching Pool Safety Strategies
File Type
application
File Size
2 MB
Download File

Initial concepts and ideation

Hand-drawn concept sketches of three different pool safety products are shown. The first is a floating pool alarm that inflates when someone falls in unexpectedly. The second is a modular portable fence system. The third is a wall-mounted underwater alarm that uses AI technology to detect if someone is drowning based on the swimmer's movements.

The research gathered all suggested that water supervision needs improvement to prevent drowning incidents, especially in the backyard. I saw this as an opportunity to create a device that can enhance supervision for anyone with a backyard pool. Initial concepts I explored included an inflating pool alarm and a modular portable fence design for inflatable or above-ground pools. The AI technology in the underwater camera on the right had the most innovative potential, which I took further.

The technology

Within the past five years, AI drowning detection models have been in rapid development to act as an additional safety net to enhance – not replace – human supervision.

Lynxight employs an above-water software system that tracks the submersion time of people in the water. This system has found success, being integrated in over 40 Australian public pools today (Royal Life Saving Society Australia, 2024). If a swimmer has been submerged or unexpectedly disappeared from the camera’s range for too long, remote alerts will be sent to lifeguards wearing a smart-alert watch.

Taking a different approach, experimental underwater cameras have been developed to detect if someone is drowning based on their movements. The OpenPose AI software tracks specific movements by imposing a skeleton over swimmers. The reliability of recent models has rapidly improved, with an overall accuracy rate of 89.4% as of 2021 (Jian & Wang, 2021).

However, there are currently no options for families to use these technologies in their own backyard. The Guardian Pool Alarm will be the first to cover this gap in the market.

Introducing the guardian pool alarm

your new companion, here to ensure 24/7 supervision around the pool

User Flowchart

Flowchart visualising how a user interacts with the Guardian Pool Alarm when they first open it out of packaging. A written version of this process is described in text under the heading 'Initial Setup'.
Top-down real-world photograph of the Guardian Pool Alarm sitting on a ledge near a pool with water visible.

Initial Setup

When someone first purchases a Guardian Pool Alarm, the unit is arrived assembled in the box, no DIY required. With a quick charge in the sun, the unit is ready to go as your supervision assistant. If the owner chooses to, they can connect the alarm to a smart device via Bluetooth to recieve remote alerts and also view the pool from the camera’s perspective. The owner can also tether the alarm to a surface by threading a water-safety rope through a hole running through the back of the unit.

User interface

Close-up digital render of the interface buttons on the Guardian Pool Alarm. Text within the image describes the function of the three buttons as follows: 'Bell: Hold for two seconds to stop the audial alarm and flashing LED lights'. 'Power: Hold for 3 seconds to toggle the unit power on or off'. 'Bluetooth: Press to make alarm discoverable to pair to a smart device'.
Close-up digital render of the top of the Guardian Pool Alarm, focusing on the camera lens, solar panels and flashing LED diode. The device is shown floating in the water.

Key Electronic Components

When switched on, an LED Light will blink every 3 seconds to confirm that the unit is working. The circular solar panels are snugly fit into the shell and provide the main power source for the device. Fisheye camera lenses each have 200° viewing range, creating a full 360° view above and under water. Adapting the AI software models identified earlier, the unit tracks activity both above and below the water to ensure full supervision.

Emergency detection

Three Guardian Pool Alarm devices have LED strip lights on, each colour corresponding to a different emergency. The describing text is as follows: 'Red: Person at risk of drowning'. 'Yellow: Animal spotted in water'. 'White: Debris spotted in water'.

The alarm uses both audio and visual cues when an emergency is detected. Three different emergencies can be alerted, being people at risk, animals in danger and foreign objects spotted. A speaker paired with an embedded sound chip will sound distinct alarm tones corresponding to the type of emergency, so bystanders know what the alarm is for. The LED flashing lights act as a visual aid, which is especially useful if a bystander happens to be hard of hearing.

components and materials

Exploded view digital render of the Guardian Pool Alarm, showing all separate parts. Describing text for all fifteen unique parts are as follows: 'Solar Panels (Epoxy Resin)'. 'Interface Buttons (Silicone Rubber)'. 'Top Shell Half (HDPE)'. 'Bottom Shell Half (HDPE)'. 'LED Diode'. 'Custom Washer (Silicone Rubber)'. 'O-Ring (Silicone Rubber)'. 'Camera Lens Holder'. 'LED Strip Lights'. 'Pan Head Screws (Stainless Steel 304)'. 'Camera Lens'. 'Batteries'. 'Speaker Unit'. 'Camera PCB'. 'Interface PCB'.

– The shells are made from HDPE, which is treated to be UV resistant and has high impact resistant making it perfect for outdoor use. HDPE also floats well on water, plus the negative space inside the model helps with buoyancy. The bottom shell is translucent to allow the LED strip lights to emit brightly within the water.

– The solar panels play a key role to power the device. Epoxy panels have flexible properties which are used to fit the rounded form naturally.

– The interface buttons are embossed from the shell and have a rubbery finish distinct from the smooth hard finishes of the outside parts.

– The O-ring and washer components are important at keeping the unit watertight by clamping between the two shells. The silicone rubber will repel any seeping water leaks that may occur due to tolerance differences.

– Even considering lengths of wires, the unit is designed to be easily disassembled. Off-the-shelf parts are used to make the unit easy to repair.

Real-world photograph of the Guardian Pool Alarm, held with two hands against a blurred balcony background.

Value and Purpose

– The Guardian Pool Alarm gives pool owners peace of mind, knowing they can track potential pool dangers 24/7.

– The alarm can stay active at night, with night vision cameras supervising potential dangers in the dark when you’re asleep.

– Learning from the mistakes of existing products on the market, false alarms are minimised by focusing on tracking visual activity rather than relying solely on motion, which can be overly sensitive.

– Owners can receive remote updates via their smart device and can view from the camera’s perspective at anytime, anywhere to feel confident about their pool’s safety.
Digital render of the Guardian Pool Alarm floating in a pool.

Summary of Key Features

– Solar powered unit stores power using rechargeable batteries.

– Fisheye lenses on the top and bottom of the unit monitor above and under the water with 360° vision.

– Three different emergencies can be alerted for people in danger, animals at risk and foreign objects.

– Clear user interface makes the unit easy to operate.

– Live updates can be sent to smart devices via Bluetooth.

– Compact design makes the device easy to carry and take on-the-go.

– Numerous off-the-shelf components are used in construction to make DIY repair easy.

Photo gallery (13 images)

Reference List

– Abbassi, R., Asadnia, M., Belford, A., Erfani, E., Jalalifar, S., Mohseni-Dargah, M., & Razsmjou, A. (2024). Enhancing Water Safety: Exploring Recent Technological Approaches for Drowning Detection. Sensors, 24(2), 331–331. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24020331

– Jian, J., & Wang, C. (2021). Deep Learning Used to Recognition Swimmers Drowning. 2021 IEEE/ACIS 22nd International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD). https://doi.org/10.1109/snpd51163.2021.9704884

– Royal Life Saving Society Australia. (2024). Royal Life Saving Australia and Lynxight Partner to Drive Next Generation Lifesaving Innovations in Aquatic Facility Safety. Royal Life Saving Australia. https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/about/news-and-updates/news/2024/jun/royal-life-saving-australia-and-lynxight-partner-to-drive-next-generation-lifesaving-innovations-in-aquatic-facility-safety

The complete design development record

Name
Guardian Pool Alarm Design Development Record (DDR)
File Type
application
File Size
7 MB
Download File

Noah Turnbull

Noah is an Industrial Designer driven to make a positive impact by improving people’s quality-of-life. He conducts extensive research for every project to understand the needs of others to bring meaningful solutions to fruition. With refined skillsets in product visualisation, Noah strives to create visually appealing designs that resonate with people.