Computer Vision News - July 2016

But it would be too easy to straightaway blame the negligence of lifeguards for the accident. If you stand in the place of the lifeguard, you will immediately notice that your sight is not extended to all the pool: there are blind spots, meaning that the shape of a pool does not allow a complete vision; lifeguards must choose what to look at, since they cannot at the same time look left, right, in front, on the surface and in the depth of the water; some areas are in the shadow or overexposed to the sun, preventing an accurate view; the same thing happens with wavelets in outdoor pools. Besides these environmental challenges, other factors preclude a perfect view: there are limits to human attention , especially in noisy and overheated settings like public pools often are. Studies show that at temperatures of 86 degrees F (30 degrees C), the loss of attention reaches 45%. Other studies showed that the average rate of active surveillance of lifeguards is as low as 49%, meaning that most of the time their attention is caught by other issues, regardless if these are legitimate or not. Observing this situation and motivated by a friend whose child had drowned, Poseidon’s founder decided 15 years ago to find a solution based on computer vision to help lifeguards prevent accidents . Computer Vision News Application 13 “ Lifeguards cannot at the same time look left, right, in front, on the surface and in the depth ” Application