Innovations for scuba diving gears in the future

[XTAR]

Diving gears and technology have made big advances over the past few decades. Innovations on diving equipment also look very promising. And we are all curious about how the future diving gears may look like.

Just watched a video before, it showed a conceptual design about a ORB Oxygen rebreather helmet for tank-less scuba diving. Innovative crystalline material inside can absorb oxygen from the surrounding water and release it when needed. And this helmet is fitted with Bluetooth technology to allow divers to communicate with each other. It’s also integrated with underwater camera, head mounted dive lights, can deliver light directly without occupying the hands.

And a Swedish managing director also came up with an idea of a smart console, which is a palm-sized unit that will allow a diver to view the name, position, depth, and air supply of other buddies.... If a diver runs low on air, an alert is sent over the local console network for quick response. It will be helpful for safer scuba diving.

How about your ideas on future scuba diving gears?

 

[XTAR]

Many divers see there are more choice for the rec world, but not see much changing for the tech/cave world. They think the simpler just works better, hence why there are less flashy toys in tech/cave diving...

 

[OTF]

You're an equipment manufacturer, instead of asking us for ideas about what the future holds why don't you come up with your own truly innovative (rather than cheap and derivative) light designs?

A big part of future innovation is going to be shifting products and packaging to be manufactured in ways that are less damaging to the environment. What do you, as a manufacturer in a country with little to no environmental regulation, plan to do to ensure your manufacturing processes and sources are not causing harm to the planet?

The rebreather helmet is vaporware at best, a scam at worst. All the features you mentioned are either impractical or impossible.

 

[rolanddiver]

Radio waves, especially microwave (like bluetooth) don't spread too far underwater, due to the high attenuation properties of water. In other words, forget about bluetooth and such. Military uses longwave (extremely low frequency) that requires 100km !!! long antennas for comms with submarines and transfer rates a few baud per sec only. Ultrasound maybe a better way for between divers comms.

Rebreather helmet with today's technology is not possible. Would require way too much energy and the amount of water it would need to filter is just tremendous (thousands of liters per minute). The helmet would also work as a torpedo when pushing such significant amount out, so the diver may never need a scooter/DPV. As pointed out already it is vaporware.

Very Respectfully

Roland

 

[GF99/99]

Just watched a video before, it showed a conceptual design about a ORB Oxygen rebreather helmet for tank-less scuba diving. Innovative crystalline material inside can absorb oxygen from the surrounding water and release it when needed.

I hope this was some kind of late April fools joke.

As Rolanddiver mentioned the amount of water required to obtain enough oxygen for this would be insane. Not to mention how could it possible be tankless??? You would need some kind of diluent also would need something to inflate your wing and dry suit (if diving that)

Oh yeah and don't forget about your bailouts for when this magical unit fails.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

The one version of this helmet they had at DEMA a while back sent one of the test divers to the hospital in an ambulance.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Tough crowd, we all complain that manufacturers don't try to get involved, then when they try to get involved, we just poke fun at them.

I'd like to see a Big Blue competitor and I think Xtar is fitting, their battery and charger technology are good quality and good price even if you use them in a different brand of light. I think one of the newest little things coming out now, are the lights with USB C chargers built directly in them, but I am concerned because I hear a lot of them are "non compliant" and require a USB A to C cable. I'd really like a usb c rechargeable light, if it could use the same usb c to c cable that my laptop uses.

I also really love the Genesis battery pack that is essentially a ton of 18650 cells on boards. I'd love to see similar boards created for other scooters, like the UV18/26.

I also wish Shearwater would come out with haptic feedback on their CCR controller wrist sets, or on the nerd, so you'd get more feedback about possible issues. There is a lot of room to innovate.

But innovation doesn't mean throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks. Xtar has some neat lights, but I can't make sense of their product lines. It's just a jumble of similar products, with no clear differentiation into lines. I'd love to see them simplify into a few lines (Recreational, Crossover, Video and Tech, for example) with differentiating features, such as Recreational lights all getting one style of on/off switch, while Tech has a different style; or Tech having the LCD display for life, and Recreational using an LED for life, etc. Then, a simple numbering system to help you figure out which one is brighter or dimmer.