Students at King Low Heywood Thomas, a private school in Stamford, Connecticut, invented the Ryptide. It's a drone designed to carry an inflatable lifering to a drowning person. As soon as it releases its payload over the person, a carbon dioxide tank automatically inflates the ring, providing safety until human rescuers can arrive.
-via Damn Geeky
I wonder if the hard part of ocean rescue is actually spotting the victim (rather than getting to them via boat or good ol' fashioned swimming by the lifeguards). In which case, drones to scan the shorelines would be most useful.
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