Operation
Modern dive computers are battery-powered computers within a watertight case. These computers track the dive profile by measuring time and pressure. All dive computers measure the surrounding pressure to estimate the partial pressure of gases in the human tissue. More advanced dive computers also include additional information into the calculations, for example, the water temperature or the diving cylinder pressure.
The computer then uses the profile and a decompression algorithm to estimate the partial pressure of inert gases that has been dissolved in the diver's tissues. Based on these calculations, the computer estimates when a direct ascent is no longer possible, and what decompression stops would be needed.
Examples of decompression algorithms are Bühlmann tables, the Multi-Tissue Model, the Varying Permeability Model, and the Reduced Gradient Bubble Model.
Many dive computers are able to produce a safe decompression schedule for dives that take place at altitude, which requires a slower ascent than at sea level, because the computers measure the atmospheric pressure before the dive. When divers travel before or after diving and particularly when they fly, they should transport their dive computer with them in the same pressure regime so that the computer can measure the pressure profile that their body has undergone.
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