2.3 million workers around the world succumb to work-related accidents every year. In Korea alone, seven fatalities occur daily due to industrial disasters. And among all industrial fatalities, falling is the main cause. Along with the human loss, economic loss, too, is enormous, with worldwide over 1.25 trillion dollars annually.
Current solutions, such as safety harnesses, nets or routine safety training are available, but seem to fail in preventing fatal accidents from happening. What is missing is a product that provides workers with an active protection. Our Smart Wearable Airbag for Professionals was designed to fill this gap.
Our comfortably-to-wear vest-type airbag stays flat in normal condition and can be used both with or without a safety-harness - depending on the environment of the worker. In the case of an accident, the internal sensor box, equipped with gyro sensors, acceleration sensors and others, detect the fall, leading the airbag to inflate within 0.2 seconds. The airbag actively protects crucial body parts, such as the head, neck, spine and chest area, and test results suggest that the airbag absorbs the fall impact by up to 55.4%. An accompanying smartphone application automatically sends out a text-alert with the location and information of the worker and dials an emergency call to pre-recorded emergency contacts to ensure immediate first-help and a timely rescue.