Iconic French designer Philippe Starck is flexing his designer skills with tech once again. This time, it's for a wearable that could well end up saving people's lives.
Starck was commissioned by the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (the French voluntary coastguard organisation) to develop a device that can help aid anyone that gets stuck out at sea.
Essential reading: Best waterproof fitness trackers for swimming
Dial, which stands for Individual Alert and Localization Device, takes the form of a flexible and highly resistant waterproof bracelet that houses GPS to help share location data when the surface of the wearable is pressed. The setup also comes with a multi-operator SIM card that can be used in 36 countries in Europe to widen the locations you can transmit a continuous GPS position from.
When the button is pressed, it launches an alert that's reported in the wearable's companion app on your phone. It can send out an email to the Operational Rescue and Rescue Center (CROSS) including a link to view the alert on a map to help aid a speedy rescue. The video above, which is in French, does give you a better idea of how it'll work and the kind of scenarios it could prove useful in.
While Dial is primarily designed for boaters and water sports fans who like to go solo, it does have the ability to work with emergency services on land, too. The SNSM also sees value in parents using it to locate their children if they go wandering off on the beach.
Other details worth mentioning is that waterproofing is up to 10 metres deep, but it's not considered suitable for divers. It also has a maximum battery life of 12 hours and that's based on using it in normal mode with data feedback every minute.
The Dial wearable is available to buy from SNSM's website for €119, which works out to roughly . That gets you the beacon, bracelet, charging cable, charger and a multi-operator subscription for 80 hours of use. That subscription can be topped up through individual packs.
We've already seen the likes of Apple and Samsung begin to embrace safety features on its own devices. Having something that can now keep you safe in the watery depths is definitely something we can get on board with.
Via: Dezeen
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.