Underwater Communications System

Bluetooth doesn't work underwater, so Zygo's founders arrived with a patent and a bench prototype, nothing more. Outerspace resolved the waterproofing and antenna manufacturing standing between it and production.

Summary

Industry

Sports & Fitness

Expertise

Industrial Design
Mechanical Engineering

Awards

Project Details

Challenge

Bluetooth doesn't work underwater

Zygo's founders, swim coaches by trade, wanted to coach and stream music to swimmers mid-lap. No consumer wireless protocol transmits through water, so the entire premise needed different physics, not a better app. They arrived with a patent application and a concept, not a producible design.

From bench prototype to manufacturable product

We took the founders' initial surface model and handset prototype and resolved what stood between it and production: mechanical engineering, waterproofing, electronics integration, heat dissipation and manufacturing optimisation for an antenna design that hadn't been built at scale before.

Outcome

Zygo shipped as the first wireless headset and communication system built for underwater audio streaming, IP68 rated, using radio frequency technology in place of Bluetooth to carry sound below the surfa

Technical Insights:

Industrial design (Creativity)

Headset and handset form developed from the founders' initial prototype into a producible design.

Electronic engineering (Capability)

Radio frequency transmission and custom antenna design, carrying signal underwater in place of Bluetooth

Mechanical engineering (Capability)

IP68 waterproof rating, heat dissipation and a manufacturing technique built specifically for the antenna design

Their idea was to develop a communication system so they could easily coach and communicate to swimmers, during their training, from the side of the pool and potentially stream music through the system. No system had achieved this before.

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