History and Research
In 2006, New Zealander Dr Peter Johnson, an engineering consultant and design engineer, was observing a commercial dive team performing a complex build inside a water reservoir and was concerned about the difficult tasks at hand coupled with primitive diver communications (voice and video). Given the entanglement issues faced by the divers on this particular project, they needed to be on open circuit SCUBA. The task work rate was very high resulting in rapid air consumption. Diver monitoring by the dive master was via the basic tools of a stop watch, a calculator and the occasional “calling of gauges”.
Believing that there had to be a better, safer and more efficient way to monitor divers, Dr Johnson began searching the world stage to find such a system.
Somewhat surprisingly there was very little available that both monitored and tracked divers.
As a shareholder and operations director of a commercial dive construction company (Monitoring Technologies Commercial Dive Limited) he began a mission to improve the safety of occupational diving. From these beginnings, the Diver DACAD System™ was born. Monitoring Technologies Commercial Dive Limited has provided an invaluable test platform in a series of tough working environments for the Diver DACAD System™.
The Royal New Zealand Navy was also instrumental in helping to mould the way the Diver DACAD System™ was designed and used. The Diver DACAD System™ is successfully operating in an international Navy and in a USA West Coast Police Department. The Diver DACAD System™ is New Zealand Strategic Goods ML9(c) and is US Navy AMU (approved for military use), Equip # 6.3.13 Cat II.
New Zealand Government Funded
The Diver DACAD System™ was developed with the assistance of the New Zealand Government through the Foundation for Research Science and Technology, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the Callaghan Foundation. The product has the full backing and support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise both in New Zealand and offshore.
In 2010 the Diver DACAD System™ won the TechNZ Best Innovation Showcase award – beating 20 other New Zealand innovative companies – including Weta Workshops and Fonterra, to take the prize. The Diver DACAD System™ was judged by 300 distinguished innovative delegates including Sir Peter Maire (founder of Navman) and Sir Steven Tindall (founder of the multi-billion dollar organisation, The Warehouse) to be the most innovative product.
