The level creator was fun!
Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
61–70 of 394 posts
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#62Fellow 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.
I like the idea, but the stakes are really high in downing. At some point you want it to be helpful, but not to be so good as to make the human lifegaurd not pay full attention. Machine learning might not be the way to go here.. It definitely in the realm of possibilities. They're starting to do the camera assist in the checkout product theft prevention. http://www.stoplift.com/how-it-works/
Anthropic fallacy. It seems like you are assuming a human is or will always be better than another solution.
There may be solutions that are vastly superior to a human lifeguard.
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#63I didn't realize that if you click on the video, it will tell you if there is a child drowning there or not.
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#64I witnessed a scene like this a while ago and it was such a pure horror, that I still get tears in my eyes when recalling the event. I was lying with my wife next to the pool, casually watching. A small boy, maybe 6 or 7 years old, stepped to the ladder and climbed down into the water, in a completely confident, unspectacular way. With the water up to his neck, he did not start to swim, though, but just continued dow…
it? Did the boy do this intentionally? Did he go unconscious when entering the pool? Was he trying to stay under as long as he could? Why was he not moving at all on the way in? <- Down-mods for relevant questions.
Watching "it" happen. the drowning
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#65Genuine question: is it about time that we start thinking about banning (most) swimming pools? Bear with me for a second. I continually hear tragic stories of them. A child drowning in front of their parents. Someone starting to drown, and accidentally drowning another person who tried to save them. Just the other day, I read a story of how at a bachelorette party the bride-to-be was jokingly pushed into a swimming p…
> I continually hear tragic stories of them.
Just remember that you don't hear the mundane pool stories where nobody gets hurt. And those exist in MUCH larger numbers.
In my opinion, banning is often the wrong reaction. Yes, swimming pools can be dangerous. The solution is better education for those who use them.
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#66Genuine question: is it about time that we start thinking about banning (most) swimming pools? Bear with me for a second. I continually hear tragic stories of them. A child drowning in front of their parents. Someone starting to drown, and accidentally drowning another person who tried to save them. Just the other day, I read a story of how at a bachelorette party the bride-to-be was jokingly pushed into a swimming p…
I'd rather suggest to train children in swimming as soon as possible. Even if swimming pools would be banned, there are private pools, there are lakes and rivers and creeks and canals and oceans and shores, there are ships that sink and idiots that push you down a bridge. The drowning rates are especially high in countries, where people are not able to swim. I know this from the Sudan: people do not learn to swim in the desert (and not in the cities, because there are no water parks). Everytime a boat capsizes in the Nile (and this happens unfortunately too often) all of the passengers drown, just feet away from the shore, because they are unable to swim. A couple of years ago the entire national soccer team of Sudan died that way.
Being able to swim is an absolutely necessary survival skill and kids should learn it before they start to read and write!
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#67Genuine question: is it about time that we start thinking about banning (most) swimming pools? Bear with me for a second. I continually hear tragic stories of them. A child drowning in front of their parents. Someone starting to drown, and accidentally drowning another person who tried to save them. Just the other day, I read a story of how at a bachelorette party the bride-to-be was jokingly pushed into a swimming p…
I don't accept this premise. Even if you ban swimming pools, that doesn't prevent children from drowning while swimming in the ocean, or lakes, or rivers, or even backyard swimming pools. All of those environments are just as much (or more) of a risk, and far more difficult to adequately cover even with the most well-trained lifeguards. Should we prevent children from learning to swim, or enjoying the water, even in…
It's about limiting risk: kids can die both while driving a car and being a passenger of a car, but that doesn't mean it's inconsistent to ban child driving. For young children especially, drowning in pools is the leading cause of drowning, much more than natural settings, which are relatively rare (for young kids, bathtub drownings are next after pool drownings.)
I said most, because I see a place for swimming pools that are monitored closely by lifeguards and that offer swimming lessons. I'm thinking more of private, backyard swimming pools.
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#68Genuine question: is it about time that we start thinking about banning (most) swimming pools? Bear with me for a second. I continually hear tragic stories of them. A child drowning in front of their parents. Someone starting to drown, and accidentally drowning another person who tried to save them. Just the other day, I read a story of how at a bachelorette party the bride-to-be was jokingly pushed into a swimming p…
Banning's a pretty harsh response. I was gonna respond with "So are you going to ban cars?", but apparently you're okay with that.
Most of the things that are worth doing in life involve some risk - getting on a plane, getting in a car, going to an unfamiliar neighborhood, doing any kind of sport or physical activity, letting your kids walk to a nearby park. It's not the job of the state to ensure that its citizens are perfectly safe. It is the job of the state to ensure that people have the information available to them to make informed choices about risks, and to ensure that people can't push risks off on other people who didn't sign up for them. Swimming, at least, doesn't pose the same risk to other people that guns and dangerous driving do.
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
it? Did the boy do this intentionally? Did he go unconscious when entering the pool? Was he trying to stay under as long as he could? Why was he not moving at all on the way in? <- Down-mods for relevant questions.
Watching "it" happen. the drowning
> it did not wave the arms
Re: Show HN: Spot the Drowning Child
#70Genuine question: is it about time that we start thinking about banning (most) swimming pools? Bear with me for a second. I continually hear tragic stories of them. A child drowning in front of their parents. Someone starting to drown, and accidentally drowning another person who tried to save them. Just the other day, I read a story of how at a bachelorette party the bride-to-be was jokingly pushed into a swimming p…
> We're more than happy to ban guns, while they're not even close to as dangerous as swimming pools.
What? Guns cause over 3 times as many deaths as drowning.