Triton Gills - or how to fool people with a futuristic vision of diving

At one time there was a lot of buzz about the Triton Gills device. Not only the water related magazines, but also the whole Internet wrote about it. All in the spirit of “a revolutionary invention” or “a total breakthrough in diving”. Today, the situation is somewhat different, and the creators of the device are forced by the court to return huge sums raised through crowdfunding platforms. Surprised? We’re not really. Back in January 2014, we wrote that this whole “revolution” was just putty.

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Today we have official confirmation of what we have known from the very beginning. A device straight out of 007 or Star Wars movies will remain in the realm of fiction. Its creators, who scammed the money using the croudfunding platform indiegogo.com, are forced to return almost $ 900,000. As you can see, even the most absurd idea, if it hits fertile ground, can bring material benefits… at least until it does.

The device christened Triton was designed to provide its users with a completely new experience and unprecedented comfort while underwater. Without cylinders, regulators and all the equipment that usually enables a diver to function freely underwater while diving. A beautiful vision, but as we wrote over 2 years ago, unrealistic due to the way it works. To put it in the simplest terms: for the device to work, it would have to filter cosmic amounts of water at a record pace in order to extract the oxygen the user would have to breathe. Science Fiction.

Of course, it’s not as if everyone was fooled, and it’s only the smart heads at Divers24 who didn’t believe the revolutionary invention. A number of experts and several serious scientific portals have taken the device under the microscope. We relied on their calculations and opinions, but even without that, common sense told us it was too good to be true.

However, quite a large group of people who decided to support the project with cash approached the matter differently. Using the crowdfunding platform mentioned above, they managed to raise a substantial sum, which certainly allowed the Triton’s creators to dive in many resorts and locations that most of the supporters could only dream about. Admittedly, the diving equipment during these trips was probably traditional, but you can’t have everything…

Source: ibtimes.co.uk