Experienced scuba diver Samantha Mire loves her sport but is concerned that once she leaves the dive boat, she is out of touch with her colleagues.
Samantha, a final year industrial design student at Brunel, has been diving for nearly three years in varying conditions, from rough water in England, to the perfect beauty of the conditions Egypt.
But, she said, “The one thing that worried me was that once I descended, there was no way to contact the dive boat.“
After researching diver safety and handing out questionnaires to fellow divers, Samantha designed In touch, a kind of mobile phone that sends graphic text messages in the form of existing international hand signals used by all divers worldwide.
Her design attracted interest from industry at the Made in Brunel exhibition, at the Business Design Centre in North London, this week [June 8-10].
It has been proven to work above water using GPS technology. For underwater use, it requires SONAR technology which is currently unavailable to the mass market.
“In touch will have to wait a few more years until the technology for underwater use becomes more common which will lead to a reduction of costs,“ she explained.
For further details, contact Brunel University Press Office. Email: press-office@brunel.ac.uk. Or contact Samantha directly at email: samantha@samanthamire.co.uk.