Swimming is the much-played sport around the world. No matter if you are blind or not, the love of the game never ends. Most of the Paralympic swimmers are even better than the ones’ who are able to see everything clearly. In the case of the former, a coach or a steward has to tap on the head or on the back of the player to alert them that they have reached one end of the pool.
However, South Korean giant Samsung has made alerting the paralympic swimmers much easier. The company in collaboration with the Spanish Paralympic Committee and Cheil Spain has come up with a new Blind Cap. The cap replaces the manual tapping with a gentle vibration to tell the players that they have reached the end of the pool.
The Blind Cap alerts are controlled by the coach through a Blind Cap App powered b a Samsung Gear S2 Smartwatch. The coaches can also control the working of the wearable with an S7 Smartphone or any other Android device. The secondary devices are connected to the Blind Cap with the help of Bluetooth. All coach has to do is to tap on Smartphone or on Smartwatch to alert the swimmer about their position.
Apart from alerting the paralympic swimmers about the position, the Blind Cap also collects the activity data and performance of the swimmers too.
The purpose of this Smart wearable is to help elite swimmers only. However, there is no confirmation as yet the device would be allowed in the competition or the training or not. The current method has been in use since blind swimming became a Paralympic sport in 1960.
The official page of the Blind Cap YouTube Channel states the purpose as:
“Samsung wants to bring technology to elite athletes, allowing them to go a step further by improving the conditions of the sport in which they dedicate their lives to.”
Breno Cotta, executive creative director of Cheil Spain, in a press release said;
“It’s much more than a wearable, it serves as a standard of innovation and we are convinced that it will soon be a reality in the Paralympic Games.”
