We attend all the dive shows not local to the Long Beach show, and I know many of you cannot attend or are prohibited from attending shows like DEMA, but we run into some really interesting products so we wanted to share some of the interesting products we come across that most are unaware of.

We had a chance to produce an HD video interview of the inventor of the following device and thought it might appeal to you gadget hounds.

Some of you may remember the Xios Tracker made by a Swiss company that went defunct, although the unit is now supposedly back in production under the auspices of a French company.

The UDI is a wrist mounted device that allows you to either text message your buddy or all others who carry a similar device. Plus if you have an emergency, you can send out an SOS beacon that can be homing tracked by other users or the beacon can be received by a base unit on the boat. The boat base unit can also send out alerts.

The UCI now comes with an integrated dive/deco computer.

One of the most useful features I can think of is equipping the most prolific bug catchers on a charter dive boat with a unit, then dropping down and sending them a text message deliberately sending them away from you to an area where there are no bugs with a text like; "I've found the mother load, a huge lobster condo and I'm limiting out on keepers, go 100 meters directly north of the boat to 100 FSW, bring everyone!"

This will send the original prolific bug hunter to an area other than where you are along with a group that will follow him or her. Plus at that depth, they will run up their nitrogen loading, deplete their air faster, meaning longer surface intervals and shorter subsequent bottoms times, all sure to dramatically increase your lobster potential.

Below is a photo of the unit.

Thoughts?

; ) Dave

http://www.ScubaMagazine.net

• Re: U/W Text Messager photo Dave 13:25:16 12/08/07 (0)