Dive computers of the future?

[tridacna]

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?

 

[BoltSnap]

Integration with mobile phones and dive masks and use of anal probes for bio-integration.

 

[Neilwood]

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 would imagine it all depends on how much money companies want to chuck at it.

Best guess though:
1) Doppler integration in some form to map bubble formation - allow a personalised tracking in real time.
2) Scan for body composition - compensating for fitness (similar to home scales registering fat %) / condition (hydration level)
3) AI in all computers - the tech is there but needs refined and made cheaper (will probably happen as electronics become cheaper).
4) More use of HUD technology with mask integration becoming more common.

I don't think touch screen will happen - no way I am diving without gloves during the summer never mind winter here!

 

[Rhone Man]

I suspect they won't actually be that different.

I remember when I saw my first dive computer in 1988. Nearly thirty years later, they do broadly the same job in the same manner. Wireless transmitters were a big jump, and they had to accommodate nitrox and then later gas switching. But for the most part they look and feel very similar. Maybe smaller, thinner and more accurate - but the changes have been at the margins.

 

[Bubblesong]

The joke about "anal probe" aside, what if we did have sub-cutaneous implants that could read our nitrogen absorption?
then we can fine tune computer to our own safety needs.

 

[Akimbo]

Doppler integration is probably optimistic in that time frame, but will come. Hyperbaric medicine still doesn't quite know what to do with the tiny bubbles that the current technology can detect, let alone "wearable" sensors in the 10-15 year future. When it does come, the computer will only need to detect and interpret the safe threshold of bubbles in the body. You "may" not even need to tell the computer what gasses you are breathing. You will probable only have decompression algorithms on a phone or general purpose computing device for dive planning.

I suspect that diver and boat location features that are even more capable than are available on some of the Liquivision computers will be standard by then -- since their patents will run out. I also expect GPS and PLB-like functions to be built-in for use on the surface. Wearable technology "may" also allow monitoring blood oxygen and CO2 levels.

 

[lowviz]

... what if we did have sub-cutaneous implants that could read our nitrogen absorption? ...

You would need 16 sensors, one for each compartment.

Being a bit more serious, I personally need no more information than I'm already getting, just serve it up like my GPS for driving.

Some sweet female voice whispering in my ear: "You're ten minutes into deco, Hon. You best start up now or you'll be sucking a pony to get home..."

 

[tridacna]

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.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Battery life will continue to improve (increased mah and/or decreased size), as will screen technology (though Shearwater has that down pat). Algorithms may change based upon what is learned between now and then. Possibly more parameters might be inputted for models (age, weight, health indicators). Components/electronics will decrease in size.

If there was a way to have a sensor over the bottom of one's wrist that is able to monitor for bubbles in the bloodstream, that would be awesome. Would need to be separate for dry suit divers.

 

[RainPilot]

...
Some sweet female voice whispering in my ear: "You're ten minutes into deco, Hon. You best start up now or you'll be sucking a pony to get home..."

Good lord lowviz, I cant keep buying new keyboards....