Diving equipment - 10 years from now

mike gray a écrit :

> Other high tech??????? What do you want? Most of the market is
> very happy with low tech/low cost/low maintenance/low problem gear.

What about a wetsuit that does not stink after you pee?

Cheers,

Froggy

> Rebreathers for everybody - or is that still far in the future?

Look deep into my crystal ball...

In the future I predict that we will not need SCUBA gear at all. We'll
simply engineer a set of gills in our peritoneum which we'll use to
dive. You simply "inhale" water via you arse, and expel it through your
navel.

Or maybe it should be run in reverse? Magnetohydrodynamic diving anyone?

Next question.

Bryan :)

"Bryan Heit" <bjheit@NOSPAMucalgary.ca> wrote in message
news:dt22nn$ihg$1@news.ucalgary.ca...
>> Rebreathers for everybody - or is that still far in the future?
>
> Look deep into my crystal ball...
>
> In the future I predict that we will not need SCUBA gear at all. We'll
> simply engineer a set of gills in our peritoneum which we'll use to dive.
> You simply "inhale" water via you arse, and expel it through your navel.
>
> Or maybe it should be run in reverse? Magnetohydrodynamic diving anyone?
>
> Next question.

Damn.

>
> Bryan :)

"Matthias Voss" wrote

>>>A dive gear bag with lights inside.

>> Done. There are several lights in my dive gear bag right now.

> Do they begin to shine the moment you open the zip?
> And, punctures don't cut it!

Sometimes they shine continuously, but only if I forget to turn them off.
Unlike the one in my car toolbox, none of them have shown a tendency to get
turned on while in the bag.

Lee

Lee Bell wrote:
> Mike and Hugh agree that a stasis between practicality and cost has been
> reached.
>
> Hell, guys, I felt sure you both were more imaginative than that.

FWIW, I don't think its for a lack of imagination ... its a question of
the cost:benefit of the innovation, and if the market is willing to
bear the price. For example, rebreathers don't cut it - - - at their
current price point. As such, one way to ask the question is what
price point will a RB become viably competitive ... let's say that
that's $500. Part 2 of the question is if RB's will get down to $500
within the next ten years. YMMV, but IMO, probably not.

> Here's a few ideas that might be worth the cost:
> 1. A computer that really does continuous real time sampling of the gas, the
> environment and the body, perhaps reading gas and other issues directly.

Sure. But from a marketplace adoption perspective, how much more would
that cost, for how much gain in bottom time? IMO, it has the same
basic challenge as the rebreather: it might double your bottom time,
but not cheaply, so therefore it won't significantly transform the
marketplace.


> 2. Something that would prevent gas from entering body tissues in
> concentrations above surface saturated or remove them at a rate sufficient
> to prevent narcosis, decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity risks.

Assume that someone makes the necessary bioengineering nanotech (etc)
breakthrough in a laboratory this week. The realities are that it will
take it at least a decade to get through the FDA-type approvals to
bring it to market. At present, its not easy to get human use
protocols for experimentation for "important" (life saving) stuff, so
for something that would be seen as primarily a recreational
application, its going to take much longer ... even if there's a
technology push by the military.


> 3. A system for getting the gas you need to live from the water that
> actually works . . . in fresh and salt water.

As I think I mentioned when the Israel "gill" device was just recently
discussed that I recalled that "Popular Science" magazine had a cover
story about a working US Navy prototype back in the 1960's. Its not
that its not a 'good idea', or that no one has throught to work on it
for the past 40 years: it is that there were fundimental technology
challenges that drove the cost up to make it not a practical solution
versus the alternatives.

For a gill, one of the issues is power & energy storage. A battery is
simplistically a power energy storage device, where the potential
energy is stored chemically. While batteries have improved pretty
significantly in the past decade (cost-effective rechargables in
particular), they've not improved by a full order of magnitude from the
power density of the century-old lead-acid battery, so when our device
needs another order of magnitude of power storage improvement from
today's Li-Ion tech to be advantageous enough runtimes to be
marketplace-practical, the realm of theoretical battery chemistry says
that there aren't any solutions possible amongst all known elements, so
this dog won't hunt.

For the past half decade (ie, since 2000) we have had battery tech with
better power:weight ratio's than Li-Ion, but the question then becomes
how would we make that technology work underwater, since by definition,
the Zinc-Air battery is an "air breather". Ditto for the consideration
of fuel cell technology too.


> 4. An electronic force field capable of providing gas, resisting pressure
> and protecting from biting and stinging creatures of all types. While we're
> at it, we might as well make it radiation, bomb, bullet and everything else
> proof. Imagine what a power you could be if nobody could harm you.

I'll settle for just the patent on the compact power supply that could
run that force field, since its the building block needed for flying
cars, anti-gravity devices and world peace.


-hh

Lee Bell wrote:

> "Matthias Voss" wrote
>
>
>>>>A dive gear bag with lights inside.
>
>
>>>Done. There are several lights in my dive gear bag right now.
>
>
>>Do they begin to shine the moment you open the zip?
>>And, punctures don't cut it!
>
>
> Sometimes they shine continuously, but only if I forget to turn them off.
> Unlike the one in my car toolbox, none of them have shown a tendency to get
> turned on while in the bag.

Should I have phrased my technology claim "bags with
lighting inside"?

Matthias

Lee Bell wrote:

>>>Practical rebreathers have been around for 150 years, have
>>>always been complicated, finicky, and expensive. There is
>>>nothing on the horizon that will change that.
>
>
> Hell, you could build the early Halcyon rebreather in your back yard from
> parts you picked up at the local bicycle shop.
>
> Lee
>
>
>
True, but it was still finicky.

On 15 Feb 2006 12:57:25 -0800, "The Thunder Child"
<thethunderchild@omnivoreink.com> wrote:

>Anyone care to speculate on what equipment will be available for sports
>divers 10 years from now?
>
>Rebreathers for everybody - or is that still far in the future?
>
>Full face masks so that people can communicate by voice?
>
>Any other high tech stuff on the horizon?


Despite the optimism about an artificial gill (theoretically if you
could run enough water through a semipermeable membrane, the oxygen
could be extracted), I saw an article once demonstrating that our
oxygen requirements in terms of volume are simply too high. The
maximum solubility of oxygen in water is too low to supply our need
unless a ton of water is moved (not literally of course, just way too
much) . Sketched a device out when I was a kid and was pretty
disappointed to find out it was impractical. But a lot of technology
has evolved since then, it might be possible now with nanomaterials,
lots of surface area in a small package.

How about a spun carbon fiber or fiberglass tank that would free us
from some of the weight? Anything like that out there yet?

Thinner, less ponderous dry suits made from new materials?

Speaking of the blood nitrogen monitoring, something for this was
contemplated for blood glucose and is already in use for oxygen, as
anyone who has been in the hospital with that wired clothespin on his
finger can attest. Can't account for the dissolved nitrogen in the
tissues this way, though, but could use it as an input for

Full face masks do look like a pain in the ass. I've never worn one,
but I used to have a Dacor Equinaut that was a near equivalent,
probably the best mask I ever had.

Remember the cool helmets and tank fairings that Cousteau's divers
used to wear? I'd love to see stuff like that on the market at a
reasonable price. The Nightrider http://www.niteriderdive.com looks
good, but man they are $$$. Once good white LEDs come out, maybe the
price will come down.

Just some idle thoughts

Terry L. Davis


"Well... I am what I am, thank God.
I said I am what I am, thank God.

Some people don't understand, help them God.

Yes, I am."

Jimi Hendrix

Lee Bell wrote:

> "Matthias Voss" wrote
>
> >>>>>A dive gear bag with lights inside.
>
>>>
>>>>>Done. There are several lights in my dive gear bag right now.
>>>
>>>
>>>>Do they begin to shine the moment you open the zip?
>>>>And, punctures don't cut it!
>>>
>>>
>>>Sometimes they shine continuously, but only if I forget to turn them off.
>>>Unlike the one in my car toolbox, none of them have shown a tendency to
>>>get turned on while in the bag.
>>
>>Should I have phrased my technology claim "bags with lighting inside"?
>
>
> No, I would have had just as much fun with that one.




>
> I knew what you meant, or think I did. I think what you want is quite
> possible now. Just because I like things a bit more complex, consider a
> solar powered rope light (everything waterproof, of course), sewn in to the
> top of the bag with a magnetic switch activated when the zipper hits the
> open end.

Sounds nice. If not feasible, at least I'd like diving
equipment which answers to calls, and is able to shine a
green light when everything is complete for the drive.

Matthias

Matthias

Lee Bell wrote:
> "Froggy" wrote
>
> > What about a wetsuit that does not stink after you pee?
>
> How about a self warming suit that runs off human waste.

Exactly. That's called "peeing in your suit".

But version 1.0 still has that odor problem that needs to be fixed.