Tom Agapiades lost a good friend 3 years ago through drowning, and since then he’s worked on inventing a portable flotation device aimed to prevent any more of these tragic accidents. This anti-drowning device is appropriately named Kingii, referring to a lizard that spreads out its frill around the neck when in danger.
You could say that Kingii is a more convenient alternative to a life jacket, as it can simply be worn around your wrist and will also enable you to dive under the water. If you feel like you’re drowning, all you have to do is pull the silver lever and the inflatable will be filled with CO2 in less than 1 second. Once filled up, the orange inflatable will instantly pull the wearer as heavy as 275 pounds (about 125 kg) back to the water surface.
The Kingii is reuseable as long as you take out the used Kingii Cylinder, fold the bag back into the pouch, screw in a new Kingii CO2 Cylinder. The first unit purchased will come with 2 Kingii CO2 Cylinders, while additional cylinders will be available for purchase through the company’s online store once their Indiegogo campaign is over. We don’t know what the pricing range for these cartridges would be, but we’re hoping that it’ll be similar or lower than that of a Nespresso capsule. After all, there’s no reason CO2 should cost more than a good cup of coffee.