Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#31

Post by GBond » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

atourgates wrote: post #20

slayed0 wrote: post #14

I always assumed my friends who spent their summers lifeguarding had a simple carefree job. I never gave much thought to just how attentive you have to be as a lifeguard. Thanks for putting this into perspective (literally) for the rest of us.

I spent a few years of high school and college working at a summer camp, mostly as a counsellor. There were lots of great things about it, but being down by or in a lake with a group of 7-10 8-14 year olds was terrifying. I'd spend every minute counting the kids, making sure none of them were missing. At the camp I worked on, you not only had to worry about actual drownings, but also administrators who would try and…

The steal kids drill sounds quite stressful. Is the goal to train to be attentive always and spot the immediate stealing act or to keep you counting and have a proper reaction?

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#32

Post by GBond » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:32 PM UTC

I noticed this is likely a video from a "security" camera. Would it be possible to apply Motion Detection Algorithms software to realtime video for the purpose of alerting lifeguard of a possible drowning based on the IDR gestures?

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#33

Post by DEinspanjer » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

omegaworks wrote: post #9

Mithaldu wrote: post #3

Good idea. Looking at it first though i was a little confused. The video plays immediately, so i didn't realize it was interactive because i had no time to read the text and no introductory explanation. It would also help if the video automatically scaled to fill as much of the window as possible. On my screen it was a quarter of the entire screen and everything was really tiny.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm using a position: relative box as a part of the game mechanic for finding the drowner, so your browser's zoom functions should work fine. I'll look into a good cross-browser auto zoom.

Thank you for this and I hate you. I actually teared up a couple of times as the life guards pulled the kids to safety.

I also had some trouble getting the hang of what I was supposed to do. I'd recommend an interstitial to get people going before the video starts. Maybe something like this?

You are about to watch a recorded video of typical activity at a pool. Help the life guard watch all the swimmers in your half of the pool.

If you see someone who needs help from the life guard, click on them in the video and check the results at the bottom of the video.

Since life guards can't do it (as much as they might wish they could!) don't rewind, pause or click the video while being tested unless you would be ready to blow the whistle, jump in, and swim to someone.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#34

Post by northben » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:34 PM UTC

Fellow HN readers: We're a smart bunch of hackers. Why don't we have a startup working on a technology that could recognize and alert lifeguards when swimmers are in danger? I bet a few cameras and some (admittedly advanced) machine learning could spot swimmers in need of assistance.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#35

Post by chillacy » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:34 PM UTC

GBond wrote: post #32

I noticed this is likely a video from a "security" camera. Would it be possible to apply Motion Detection Algorithms software to realtime video for the purpose of alerting lifeguard of a possible drowning based on the IDR gestures?

From last week's thread on this: http://www.poseidonsaveslives.com/TECHNOLOGY.aspx

Haven't seen it in action live though, just thought it was a cool piece of tech.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#36

Post by irishcoffee » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

victorhn wrote: post #13

I think the easy pattern here is to check for those using the float wheels, as they lose of it and then they can't get back to it.

What about the strong swimmer who isn't using a float device, gets a cramp/gets hit on the head/has a seizure/${insert here}

The guard(s) worry about every single person in the pool at all times. Well, the good guards anyways.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#37

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:39 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#38

Post by thrownaway2424 » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

northben wrote: post #34

Fellow HN readers: We're a smart bunch of hackers. Why don't we have a startup working on a technology that could recognize and alert lifeguards when swimmers are in danger? I bet a few cameras and some (admittedly advanced) machine learning could spot swimmers in need of assistance.

[citation needed]

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#39

Post by jff » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

X-Istence wrote: post #11

I clicked on the kid as soon as he kicked off from the wall, as he was already panicking while trying to hold on to the rope and it didn't give me points. The next one in the tidal wave pool I clicked and all it did was pause the video, and when I continued the video the kid was being rescued. I like this though, good training, for everyone.

I actually spotted that kid as the first possible point of trouble... but you have to wait until the "moments later" card to see him start doing something risky, and then like you said, even when he's tangled in the rope it won't let you click him.

Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child

#40

Post by imjared » Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 5:40 PM UTC

slayed0 wrote: post #14

I always assumed my friends who spent their summers lifeguarding had a simple carefree job. I never gave much thought to just how attentive you have to be as a lifeguard. Thanks for putting this into perspective (literally) for the rest of us.

Was a waterpark lifeguard during highschool. We went through training every Tuesday night and were all CPR certified. It's a far cry from the lifeguards you see sitting around at neighborhood pools. If I was at the wave pool, I could easily be responsible for watching hundreds of people at any given time both in the water and in my immediate vicinity of the deck (choking? heat stroke?)

The job was sometimes so intense I'd wake up in the middle of the night in a panic because I thought I had forgotten my whistle or someone was having an emergency. Props to anyone who does it. When executed well and carefully, it's not exceptionally hard work but any lapse of judgement for even a moment can lead to disaster.