Technology
Technology can also be used to assist in the retrieval of people who fall overboard. Many GPS chart plotters designed for marine use have a Man Overboard button (MOB). This button is pushed as soon as a Man Overboard alarm is raised, causing the plotter to record the latest known position of the person overboard. This allows the boat to be easily returned to the fallen crew member even if visual contact is lost.
Several manufacturers make man overboard alarms which can automatically detect a man overboard incident. The hardware consists of individual units worn by each crew member, and a base unit. Some systems are water activated: when an individual unit comes in contact with water, it sends a signal to the base unit, which sounds the man overboard alarm. Other automatic detection systems rely on a constant radio signal being transmitted between an individual unit and the base unit; passing outside the transmission range of the individual unit and/or falling into the water cause the radio signal to degrade severely, which makes the base unit sound the man overboard alarm. Some manufacturers' hardware integrates with other systems on the boat; for example, it may activate a throttle kill switch or control the autopilot to return to the point of the downed member.
Read more about this topic: Man Overboard
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)
“If the technology cannot shoulder the entire burden of strategic change, it nevertheless can set into motion a series of dynamics that present an important challenge to imperative control and the industrial division of labor. The more blurred the distinction between what workers know and what managers know, the more fragile and pointless any traditional relationships of domination and subordination between them will become.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)