This photo provided by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety shows government officials demonstrate smart buoyancy band.
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said Thursday that it had developed an internet-of-things (IoT)-based smart buoyancy band to help castaways float in sea water and send their location information when marine accidents such as shipwrecks occur.
The smart buoyancy band is designed to help save lives when ships like ferries and fishing boats capsize or catch on fire.
If an individual wearing one of the new bands falls into the water, the band automatically provides buoyancy within five seconds, while turning on a location beacon that uses a satellite to provide location data without any distance limitations.
The band comes in two types – wrist and waist. Compared to life jackets and existing necklace-type buoyancy bands, it is smaller and lighter, and is thus more comfortable to wear.
The development of the band was led by the Friend of Industry Technology Information Testing and Research Institute with two local companies involved as joint research partners.
After being selected as a research project through a public idea contest in 2018, field testing was completed in August.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
