Dive computers of the future?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I think, in 15 years, the norm, even for new divers, will be CCR.

Along with those, I suspect computers will be integrated into the CCR unit and we'll all have very tiny heads-up displays that are mounted inside our masks. Or maybe on the outside, front of the mask. We'll have very little need to interact with the computer during a dive. I.e. rarely need to push any buttons during a dive. So, maybe no buttons at all - especially for recreational diving. But, probably a small control module with buttons that is mounted somewhere and attached to the brain in the CCR. Maybe worn on the wrist. Maybe mounted on a harness strap somewhere. Maybe something on the side of the HU display that is mounted to the front of your mask (or connected to a small module clipped to your mask strap), with a button or two on it.

I think as dive computers advance - and things like solid state O2 sensors and CO2 scrubber technology also advance - the need for computers that we have to push buttons on during a dive will fade. If you can see all the relevant info, and you don't have to tell the computer when you are switching gases, then why would you need buttons to press during a dive? Especially if it has incorporated biometrics, including doppler bubble detection, so you don't have to tell it (or change) parameters like a conservatism factor? If it can actually detect imminent onset of DCS and stop you before it happens, you wouldn't need to set Gradient Factors or change them during a dive, right?

Except.... if CCRs incorporate automatic buoyancy management, then there might be what boil down to Up and Down buttons somewhere, so the diver can ascend and descend. Otherwise, the CCR would use wing, loop, and counterlung automated volume management to keep the diver at exactly the depth they choose. I suppose there would also have to be overrides available in case the computer wanted to force you to ascend (only as an emergency measure to avoid running out of gas at depth) and that could cause the diver to be trapped inside an overhead (e.g. you're inside a wreck when it starts inflating your BCD to make you go up). But, that still leaves the computer inside the CCR unit with just a HUD for the diver to look at when they like.
 
I think, in 15 years, the norm, even for new divers, will be CCR.

I like Credence as much as some (not anyone) but I think the dive computer of the future should tell people which dive computer they should buy... but then scubaboard would be scubabored
 
The rate of change in technology is incredible today. I'd be interested to get people's views of what a dive computer will look like in 10 or 15 years.

I think that they will be much thinner and flexible so they curve around your wrist; Batteries will be charged via some kind of wireless EMF. No buttons - all controls by touch on screen.

Perhaps some kind of venous or arterial monitoring to establish nitrogen absorption?

Better wireless integration for air monitoring?

Any other ideas?

I think future computers might be worn on the head and look like this, minus the microphone.

In terms of functionality, I would expect them to have several screens that could be selected with the button. One screen would have to give your dive parameters, but other screens might show information relevant to what you're doing.

For example, it might be able to visually ID a fish and tell you the name of it. Another application would be to integrate the compass or tell you which way and how far your buddy is.... etc etc. I think with a generic screen like this that you could 'tab' through, future computers will become much more customizable as well.

In terms of decompression algorithms, I don't expect too much improvement over the next 15 years aside from RGBM becoming, at some point in the future, an interesting historical footnote. Algorithms may take things like water temperature into account but I don't see future computers using any kind of biometric data in my life time. It's complicated, it's incredibly hard to test and I think it would make computers far too expensive for the size of the market.


eyepiecePic1.jpg
 
I suspect mine will look the same as mine does today which id the same as it was 15 years ago. But they will be much more expensive.
 
The interesting thing is that none of us are even remotely capable of predicting what they will even resemble in the future. These are our predictions based on what we see and know today. Someone could figure out another biometric measure that reveals N2 absorption. Not necessarily doppler. (This is why I dislike science fiction). Reality seldom looks like the drawings of the past. Ever seen those pictures of flying cars whizzing by our 1000 floor apartments? Who knows, we all may be wearing embedded lenses in 30 years - dive computers could be an app running in that lens.
 
I think I'm more interested in the form rather than function. I do imagine a really thin flexible device. Definitely button free. (Gloves could have contact material applied for on screen usage). Realtime data of N2 absorption will be game changing.

I think future computers might be worn on the head and look like this, minus the microphone.

I vote for HUD inside the mask. And we don't need no stinking buttons: the tech for controlling computers with eye movements has been old news for a couple of years now: Controlling your computer with your eyes
 
Who knows, we all may be wearing embedded lenses in 30 years - dive computers could be an app running in that lens.

Speak for yourself. I might be wearing a diaper then. I'm fairly certain I won't be able to afford the embedding surgery and from what I know about both computers and medicine, I'll be scared s*less to get one if I were.
 
Look at how far dive computers have progressed in the last 10-20 years, you really think there will be quantum leaps in the near future? Much of the funding for decompression research has been lost with the replacement of divers with ROVs. Most of this funding came from the Navy and from the oil companies. Don't hold your breath, so to speak
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom