Pool Guardian

The Project

Our solution is to form a triangular infrared (IR) fence using IR transmitters placed on the opposite side of the pool from the house or other structure it is associated with. On the house side of the pool, two IR sensors will continuously receive signals from the transmitters. If either of the signals is broken, an alarm would be set off. The alarm would also be set off if the transmitter batteries died, allowing the owner to quickly change batteries. This solution assumes that the pool is on a property that has a fence or neighboring house in the back to form the third side of the triangle and significantly reduce the complexity of the solution and the cost of implementation. The IR beams will be transmitted at approximately 24 inches above the ground to avoid wildlife setting off the alarms; most backyard animals are under 18 inches while walking toddlers are at least 24 inches. This solution focuses on walking toddlers rather than crawling babies as they present the greatest risk.

View this project on YouTube

Team Comments

According to CBS News, "[n]early 400 children die yearly from drowning in pools." Some companies offer solutions such as motion sensors and barriers, but pool monitors can be hundreds of dollars while fencing can be thousands. While fencing does work well, it's far too expensive and can lead to addi

Sunlight interfierd with the IR recivers so we tested it at night and it worked but in the futer we would use IR beams that would flash at a certain frequency instead of the sun's constant beam.

If we had more recources we would could use an IR sensor that can go farther.