Design
Cetus Design's ultra compact emergency flotation device technology is designed to be built into the bands of a smartwatch; all that is needed from the watch face housing (to which the watch bands are attached) is electrical power for inflation activation and a protected activation button.
The dimensions of the watch bands need to be approximately 50mm width and 13mm thick in order to house our emergency flotation device technology. The appearance on the wrist of a smartwatch mock-up with these watch band dimensions is shown in the image below. The central hub (to which the bands are attached) is shown as rectangular in shape to match the width of the watch bands in this mock-up, but other designs are possible.
By locating the emergency flotation device technology in the bands, unused "real estate" of the smartwatch is utilized, as the bands of most watches do nothing more than hold the watch on the wrist. Large smartwatch bands also create the opportunity to increase the volume of the central watch face hub (to which the bands are attached) which allows a bigger screen and battery to be packaged.
Electrically activated gas generants are highly reliable and are used whenever mission critical inflation or actuation is required. For this reason they are used in car airbags (where they are designed to inflate in a fraction of a second) and aerospace applications. The high reliability of electrically activated gas generants therefore makes them ideally suited for use in an emergency flotation device.