Is it time for a new approach to beach safety that utilises AI technology to tell locals and visitors where it’s safe to swim?
Despite numerous public education and school-based beach safety campaigns going back more than a century, more Australians are statistically losing their lives at the beach than ever.
According to the latest National Drowning Report, there were 75 beach drowning deaths across the country in the 12 months to July last year. That’s a 29 per cent increase on the ten-year average. Interestingly, 39 per cent of beach drowning victims live within 10km of the drowning location, suggesting that while most victims are visitors, locals are not immune.
So, is it time for us to amend the time-honoured adage of ‘swim between the flags’ to include the phrase ‘swim where the AI app tells you?’ A quick chat to locals last week revealed a diverse range of views on this topic.
‘An app won’t help as conditions change too fast,’ local Blake Williamson said.
‘Education on rips, sweeps, currents, tides, and different types of beaches is needed’.
Another local, Daniel Nauman, said locals generally got to know their beaches well over time and to so an app would be more helpful for casual beach users such as tourists.
‘Swim between the flags is best, but there are big stretches of our coast without flagged areas,’ he said.
‘So I see potential in AI assistance for those areas.’
Surf Lifesaving New Zealand has teamed up with that country’s institute of water and atmospheric research to create a rip identification app that uses AI and deep learning technologies.
Tens of thousands of ocean images have been loaded into the program so that it can identify rip currents in stills or video with more than 90 per cent accuracy.
Swimmers can now simply take a video of the beach on their smart phone and then receive a hot-spot style graphic showing them the safest (and most dangerous) spots to swim on the beach.
The University of NSW and Surf Lifesaving Australia (SLSA) are currently collaborating on an Australian version of the app, called Rip Eye.
But the research team are not in favour of simply giving all swimmers a digital tool that advises them about where it’s safe to swim.
Professor Rob Brander, who is part of the team developing Rip Eye, told The Guardian that, ‘I’m very wary of giving people technology that will give them a false sense of security and may actually encourage them to avoid swimming between the flags’.
Professor Brander, and others, have suggested that more education is needed so that those who do decide not to drive to a patrolled beach where they can swim between the flags can learn how to spot a rip at the beach.
Research conducted in Australia and overseas suggests that the vast majority of us cannot consistently spot a rip, even if we think we can.
It seems that while AI is becoming generally accepted in many areas of our lives, the jury is still out on using it for rip spotting.
For now, it’s still ‘swim between the flags’.
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