Blind swimmers, like all conventional elite athletes, deserve to have technological advances improve their conditions as athletes. If technology should improve people’s lives, why not introduce it to this sport? The proposal was to apply the technology required to eliminate tapping, the touch signal that coaches use to advise swimmers of the exact time to turn. Our goal was to make the lives of these athletes a bit easier, giving greater freedom both to the swimmer and the coach. Thus Blind Cap was conceived, the first swimming cap with a vibration system incorporated that eliminates the touch signal. The cap, connected via Bluetooth to a smartphone or smartwatch, lets coaches send a small vibration to the swimmers to tell them when to turn, just by pressing a button on the app designed for this purpose.

Inspired by frog’s fingers,we have designed an inside flexible and organic technology that is extremely ergonomic. The electronic parts are divided into two elements to attain a hydrodynamic product that is hermetically sealed via a hard 3D-printed part. The parts are joined by wires embedded into a silicone piece that connects and covers them to prevent the silicone from absorbing the vibration. The technology is distributed in two parts: The first contains the low energy Bluetooth module, the vibrator, antenna and an FFC connector to join the wires. The second, another FFC connector and the battery.

The silicone piece is translucent and the printed parts are an eye-catching colour to highlight its high technology interior.The device is connected to the app via Bluetooth. When the coach presses the button on the app, the signal is sent to the cap by way of a vibration.It is currently in the test phase.

After the production process, we met with the Paralympic Committee to detail the needs and problems to resolve. Then we implemented the cap at elite swimmer training sessions in categories S11, S12 and S13 (blind categories), who will be competing at the next Paralympic Games.

Blind Cap was presented to Spanish Olympic and Paralympic Committees, which are excited and interested in the project, valuing it as one more step ahead in the world of Paralympic sports. They have stated their intention to change regulations in order to introduce Blind Cap at national competitions.

As it is not a commercial product, it is only used by the aforesaid coaches and swimmers at the facilities of the committee itself at which the elite athletes train and workout. The idea is for it to be introduced at professional competitions in the future, to replace tapping, and that its production will grow.

The Blind Cap removes one of the great barriers that swimming has for the blind: the touch signal that their coaches use to advise them when to turn. Eliminating this signal has been possible due to the technology and innovation of the Blind Cap, which has considerably improved the conditions of both the swimmer and the coach. An application of technology was carried out with the aim of taking another step ahead in the world of the Paralympics, because this sector—like any mind and any other elite sport—merits having technological advances that improve their lives as sportspeople.

Mobile technology lets people communicate with each other, despite the distance, from any part of the world. We saw all the qualities we needed in this technology to create Blind Cap, which we based on this capacity to link two people over a distance.

Swimming for the blind has been established as a Paralympic sport for over 50 years. Although it is not one of the most highly followed sports in our society, such as football, they are also elite athletes and deserve for technological advances to help them improved their performance as athletes. The greatest limitation is that they need to be advised by their coaches to know the exact time to turn. At this time there is only tapping, a touch signal done with a pole and a sponge attached to its end.

We had a 15,000 euro budget.