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Background
A new wave of technology is afoot to keep drowning incidents at
bay. Quite often, most swimming pools rely on the watchful eyes
of lifeguards to perform consistent surveillance.Due to the nature
of their job, however, maintaining a constant and high level of
vigilance for an extended period of time may not be always possible.
In addition, there are private pools where there are no full-time
lifeguards on duty: a situation where some form of water crisis
detection is desirable. To tackle these problems, the Drowning Early
Warning System, or DEWS, was developed as an intelligent computer-based
technology that could provide constant and automated surveillance
of the pool.
I²R
Technology
DEWS operates through a network of overhead video cameras mounted
high around the pool and strategically placed to capture the view
of an entire swimming pool. Instead of depending on lifeguards to
physically monitor this surveillance system, DEWS employs leading
edge algorithms - which operate independently on computers - that
track each swimmer in the pool watchfully, in spite of the presence
of reflections, shadows or lighting changes. Based on a number of
reliable and tested attributes that model universal and typical
traits of swimmers in trouble, DEWS promptly detects distress and
drowning situations and immediately alerts the relevant parties.
| The advantages provided by the DEWS technology
in pool risk management include: |
| • |
Automated detection of water crises through analysis
of swimmer behaviours within 20 seconds |
| • |
Increased readiness of lifeguards. The system does not replace
lifeguards; it empowers them in providing enhanced safety standards. |
| • |
A unique alarm feature to promote water safety awareness.
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| Our research efforts have also created several
patent-pending technologies. To name a few, we have developed
the technology for: |
| a. |
Automated detection and tracking of
swimmers within extremely dynamic environments
We have proposed unique ways to implement local region-based
processing, temporal filtering and robust background modeling,
which enables our system to segment and track individual swimmers
in the pool with high accuracy under the most severe conditions,
amidst rapidly changing lighting conditions.
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| b. |
Event inference based on experts’ knowledge
base
The system’s novel event inference module detects distress
or drowning situations based on reliable and tested set of
principles as established by expert lifeguards. The principles
are in essence the product of extensive behavioral study of
drowning and professional knowledge of water crisis recognition
within the lifeguarding community. The event inference module
has been proven to successfully detect cases of simulated
distress and drowning consistently, while maintaining a very
low false alarm rate for harmless playful antics of swimmers.
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| c. |
Unique algorithm that effectively handles cases of
partial
and total occlusion
There have been cases where swimmers are indistinguishable (huddled
in a group). This poses great difficulties to the continuous
monitoring of the individual swimmer. Our system effectively
resolves the ‘which pixel corresponds to which swimmer’
problem by using innovative methods to integrate motion, geometrical,
spatial and color cues within a structured mathematical framework.
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Creating Impact
With the manifold advantages that come along with it, it’s
unsurprising that DEWS has captured the interests of the likes
of public swimming pool management, condominium developers,
country club management and hotel management. This is further
supported by the facts that: |
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| • |
It is, to our best understanding, the world’s
first early drowning detection and warning system based on analysing
and detecting early drowning behaviour and facilitating timely
rescue actions.
It monitors the instinctive drowning response exhibited by
all drowning victims, independent of age, sex, ethnicity and
social background.
“The system is sophisticated enough to pick up not just
swimmers struggling above the water, but also those who have
trouble surfacing.” - Straits Times, 22 March 2002 |
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DEWS relies solely on inexpensive overhead video cameras and
off-the-shelf IT equipment. As such, this cost effective system
can be immediately installed in swimming pools using existing
infrastructure, without needing to close the facility for the
troublesome and expensive procedures of complete water drainage
or installations of customised underwater devices. |
| |
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| • |
DEWS does not require swimmers to wear any devices which are
obstructive to their movements. This is consistent with our
philosophy of effective benevolent monitoring of swimmers without
disrupting their regular activity in any way. |
Making its mark locally and abroad, the DEWS technology
is also recognised and awarded by leading world experts at numerous
prestigious international scientific conferences and journals. In
the years of 2002 and 2003, DEWS has been awarded the Entreprise
Challenge Innovator Prize by the Prime Minister’s Office and
Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors’ Merit Award. Aside from capturing
the imagination of the scientific fraternity, the marvels of this
technology have also been featured in newspapers and on regional
prime time television.
Figure 1
For enquiries/explore collaboration, please contact:
Industry Development Department
Tel: 65 6874 8399
Fax: 65 6775 9923
Email: inddev@i2r.a-star.edu.sg
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