AI Bodyguard’s Assistant Will Make Swimming Pools A Safer Place

An innovative trial is underway at a German swimming pool to enhance safety and potentially save lives using an artificially-intelligent monitoring system.
 
The Kleinfeldchen swimming baths in Wiesbaden are testing a system developed by an Israeli startup, which consists of four ceiling-mounted cameras that utilize AI algorithms to monitor the water and analyze movement profiles.
 
When irregular patterns are identified, pool staff are promptly alerted through smartwatches, beeps, and vibrations or a red dot indicating where the emergency has occurred.
 
The AI system has been trained to differentiate between typical swimming actions and real emergencies, improving itself based on the additional context given by the company so it can learn to tell when someone is drowning and when someone is just doing a somersault. After each alert, feedback is put into the machine to further its learning and enhance accuracy.
 
Regarding data protection, the cameras can only pick up on the silhouettes of those swimming and not individual faces.
 
Following the completion of this trial, Thomas Baum, the pool’s operations manager, plans to implement the AI system in other baths around Wiesbaden.
 
Now, don’t worry. If you find yourself in one of these pools, it’s highly unlikely some sentient bot will dive in and save you. Instead, the AI system is being used as an added precautionary measure to help the actual lifeguards that will still be stationed around to be more alert and to prevent missing out on drownings or other accidents while overseeing a large crowd.
 
 
 
[via TechTimes and The Star, Photo 173259964 © Susan Sheldon | Dreamstime.com]