Cutting-Edge Inflatable Collar Automatically Brings Drowning Swimmers to Surface

High-tech Ploota inflates if wearer is submerged for over 30 seconds.

July 7, 2017 5:00 am

Drowning swimmers may soon be able to save their own necks with a think piece of cutting-edge technology that they can wear around their own necks.

Ploota is a new device that’s worn like a necklace and can inflate like an airbag when the sensors detect emergency situations in the water—similar to the airbags deployed in cars during head-on collisions.

Ploota
(PLOOTA GmbH/Solent News/REX/Shutterstock)
Solent News/REX/Shutterstock

The sensors react when the wearer has been submerged underwater for 30 seconds – and fills its integrated floats with a fitted CO2 cartridge.

That brings the swimmer back to the surface, with the head positioned above the water.

Ploota
(PLOOTA GmbH/Solent News/REX/Shutterstock)
Solent News/REX/Shutterstock

Founder Rainer Fakesch came up with the idea after a swimming accident during a family beach vacation. “A family member of mine underestimated the current and almost drowned,” Fakesch, 45, told Rex Shutterstock.

“Skiing, driving, mountain biking – there is protective equipment for almost every sport, except swimming.”

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