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Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

spotthedrowningchild.com

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Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#61

Post by SilasX »

smabie wrote: post #52
JshWright wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guards actually have a lot more context. They have been watching the people in the pool and have mentally sorted them by how much attention they need. They have also been staring at the same pool for hours and their brain is ignoring all the visual noise that is distracting you. They also have the benefit of stereo vision and sound.

They’re also twirling their whistle which helps a lot, I’m sure.

When I took the Lifesaving merit badge, they said that lifeguards have to carry the whistle because it will get in the way if they wear it around their neck when trying to make a rescue.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#62

Post by b0rsuk »

minimonk wrote: post #36

One of the important lessons I learnt from a lifeguard is that movies depict a very inaccurate representation of drowning. The movies would have you believe that drowning is a violent and noisy event when in reality it is an inconspicuous and silent event. The victim cannot shout or call for help when they are struggling to keep their nose above the water level. Another important lesson I learnt that sometimes when s…

Do you know a single movie which accurately shows drowning?

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#63

Post by SilasX »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #32
Hamuko wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long of a shift do lifeguards even have? Because I wouldn't feel confident in being able to observe a bunch of people in a pool for hours for what are quite subtle clues.

The lifeguards at my local (city) pool rotate very frequently; I’d say every 15 minutes or so. Their shift is longer of course, but they aren’t sitting observing for more than around 15 minutes at a time.

Semi-OT: it came up in an earlier discussion that the 15 minute rule is common, and makes for better attention fatigue management than Uber has for SDC test drivers.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19373662

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#64

Post by rendall »

Vinnl wrote: post #35
rendall wrote: post #6

Something in the embed code prevents the "allow full screen" from working properly, so the video is tiny and scrunched up into the upper left hand corner. When I watched this on YouTube, with full screen enabled, I spotted the poor little fellow within about 5 seconds. This is using the latest chrome (v80.0.3987.132) This worked, though:

The reason for this, I think, is that the idea is that you click on the drowning person when you see it. They're probably assuming dimensions in able to correlate your click with their actual position.

Oh!!!

Maybe? There is a

  allowfullscreen="1"
in there, so I think they do want a fullscreen, just... I dunno.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#65

Post by kqr »

Drakar1903 wrote: post #46
0xBA5ED wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the lifeguard has extra context by just being in the same space with these people beforehand. They're probably already watching certain people more closely before the video starts while you and I enter the space cold (and through a fixed window).

I wonder how people would feel about machine-learning enhanced lifeguard system. Machines are sharp all the time.

At least machines are consistently dull.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#66

Post by AllegedAlec »

philshem wrote: post #47
AllegedAlec wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netherlands reporting in: swimming lessons are spread over three competency group, and as far as I know, nearly all primary schools take time in the curriculum to do at least the first two competency levels before the pupils turn 7 or 8.

Thanks for your answer. I posted my question to the open data stack exchange site[0]. If there isn't an existing dataset, maybe we can create one country by country. [0] https://opendata.stackexchange.com/q/16182/1511

Some data on the netherlands from 2014: https://www.scp.nl/dsresource?objectid=6185de0a-e909-4202-99...

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#67

Post by rndgermandude »

undineine wrote: post #18
chrismeller wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Admittedly it’s been a while since I’ve been to a public pool, and only ever in the US, but there was never any such requirement. I mean even if they did ask “can you swim?” that doesn’t really mean much, it’s not like there’s an official certification process... and either way, doesn’t mean they can’t still drown, so the lesson is relevant anyway.

European pools generally ask under children under 14 or so who go swimming unattended whether they have swimming diplomas. If you complete your swimming diplomas, you get stickers for your swim shorts to show you have completed them. Generally certain rides in water parks, like fast slides or streams will require you to have higher levels of swimming training to go on if you're under 14.

I remember I was asked a bunch of times if I had my "free swimmer" (Freischwimmer, Bronze)[1] by lifeguards when I was pre-teen in Germany, indeed. Tho, that wasn't something they did every time, more like spot checks.

My parents were wise enough to enroll me in a course so I got my "early swimmer" (seahorse, Seepferdchen) training by age 6; that doesn't make you into a good swimmer yet, but at least you know the basics. Then elementary school took over and I got up to the gold diploma by age 10.

By age 8 or so I already was a far better swimmer than my parents, who never had any formal training.

I remember my mom once refusing to take one of my friends with us swimming when I was like 8 or 9 because he didn't have any swimming diplomas yet (he had only come to Germany from Tunisia like a year prior and was in the process of catching up with swimming ed). I remember I was mad at the time, but in hindsight it was absolutely the right decision.

Still, we all knew stories of kids relatively close to us drowning; for me it was the little brother of a friend of my sisters who drowned when he went to a water park as part of a kids birthday. The "usual" had happened: the two parents of the birthday kid being too overwhelmed by 10 or so loud kids amped up on candy and not trained lifeguards anyway, not enough lifeguards, wave pool... the adults didn't even notice they had lost track of this one kid until they saw the lifeguard pulling him out of the water, too late, or so the story went.

[1] https://www.dlrg.de/informieren/ausbildung/schwimmabzeichen [German]

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#68

Post by bmgxyz »

mjlee wrote: post #15

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning [1] has gone round the internet a number of times over the last decade. Well worth reading if you spend time around water, and a good read in any case. [1] https://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

Thanks for this. I hadn't read it before, and it's quite interesting. In particular:

> One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are.

When I was a kid, I spent a few summers learning to sail. Part of our training included responding to falling overboard or capsizing our small boats with crews of two. Our instructors insisted that whenever this happened we first call out to each other, "Are you okay?" and confirm it before attempting to right the boat. I never understood why, but now I do.

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#69

Post by Jaruzel »

wycy wrote: post #20

It seems like spotting drowning children could be a good use case for computer vision, at least as a backup. The heuristics for a drowning child are pretty marked, but they're hard to spot for humans distracted by lots of other stimuli.

But who would you sue if the computer vision didn't spot your child drowning?

Re: Spot the Drowning Child (2015)

#70

Post by rndgermandude »

mcv wrote: post #30
undineine wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European pools generally ask under children under 14 or so who go swimming unattended whether they have swimming diplomas. If you complete your swimming diplomas, you get stickers for your swim shorts to show you have completed them. Generally certain rides in water parks, like fast slides or streams will require you to have higher levels of swimming training to go on if you're under 14.

The sticker or badge on your swimming trunks is something really archaic. I had one in the early 1980s, but I haven't seen them since.

I had such stickers on my trunks into the mid 90s.
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