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2026 Galleries // 2026 Spark: Spring Student // Hydro-Nox

Hydro-Nox

Winner - Bronze

Competition: Spark: Spring Student
Designer: Gyutae Go
Design Type:
Company / Organization / School: Hanseo University
Team Members: Gyutae Go, Narin Park, Jihee Han & Hyeonah Kang; Prof. Yujin park

Hydro-Nox is an advanced underwater wearable jetpack designed to transform underwater movement into a safer, freer, and more intelligent experience. The project began from the limitations of conventional diving and underwater exploration. In many underwater environments, users rely heavily on their physical strength, fins, and hand movement to control direction. At the same time, limited visibility, unfamiliar terrain, depth changes, marine organisms, rocks, and currents can make underwater activity difficult even for trained users. Hydro-Nox responds to this challenge by combining jet propulsion, wearable control, AI-assisted visual information, and real-time safety communication into one integrated system.

The purpose of Hydro-Nox is to allow users to explore underwater spaces without being restricted by conventional swimming movement. The wearable jetpack provides water-jet propulsion that enables movement upward, downward, left, right, forward, and backward while keeping both hands free. This is important because hands are often needed for balance, observation, photography, communication, or rescue support. By reducing physical burden and increasing control, Hydro-Nox makes underwater exploration more accessible to beginners while offering stronger mobility for experienced divers.

The propulsion system is designed to respond to different skill levels. Beginners can use slower and more stable settings, allowing them to become familiar with underwater movement without fear of losing control. Advanced users can select stronger propulsion for wider exploration or professional tasks. This adjustable structure lowers the entry barrier while maintaining performance for demanding situations. The system is not designed only for speed; it is designed to help users move with confidence and precision in an environment where mistakes can quickly become dangerous.

A key part of Hydro-Nox is the AI smart goggle system. The goggles provide real-time visual information about depth, location, surrounding marine life, and underwater terrain. Instead of forcing users to rely only on memory, intuition, or separate equipment, the system presents important information directly within the user’s field of view. When harmful marine creatures, rocks, unstable terrain, or potential route risks are detected, the goggles send visual warnings. This allows users to recognize danger earlier and make safer decisions before they approach hazardous areas.

Hydro-Nox also turns underwater exploration into a recordable and learnable experience. During each dive, the system can analyze and store data about encountered marine organisms, terrain, movement routes, and exploration history. This accumulated information can be used as a reference for future dives, helping users understand where they have been, what they discovered, and what areas may require caution. For marine education, this function can help learners connect real underwater experiences with ecological knowledge. For tourism, it can create guided exploration content based on actual environmental data. For research or rescue support, it can provide useful location and condition records.

Safety communication is another essential part of the system. Sensors within Hydro-Nox can monitor the user’s status and transmit location or condition data to a surface team or control point. In an emergency, this connection can help others identify the user’s position and respond more quickly. Underwater environments can make verbal communication difficult, and sudden changes in condition may not be visible from the surface. By sharing data in real time, Hydro-Nox adds a protective layer between the user and the support team.

The design of Hydro-Nox considers both the body and the environment. As a wearable product, it must stay stable without restricting movement. The structure is intended to distribute load comfortably while keeping propulsion aligned with the user’s body direction. Controls are simplified so that users do not need to process complex commands underwater. The smart goggles also reduce the need to check multiple devices, allowing users to focus on movement and surroundings. This creates a smoother relationship between body, machine, and water.

Hydro-Nox can be applied across multiple fields. In leisure and tourism, it offers a new kind of underwater experience that feels more dynamic and immersive than ordinary snorkeling or diving. In marine ecology education, it helps users observe living environments while receiving contextual information. In underwater rescue, it can support faster movement, hands-free operation, and better location awareness. In professional exploration, it can help record routes and environmental data with less physical fatigue.

The result of the project is a platform that expands underwater activity beyond simple mobility. Hydro-Nox helps people move through water, understand what they are seeing, recognize danger, and leave behind useful data. It transforms the ocean from an unfamiliar space that users pass through into an environment they can read, learn from, and communicate with.

In the long term, Hydro-Nox proposes a new direction for underwater equipment. Future marine products should not only help people move faster; they should help them move with greater awareness, responsibility, and safety. By combining wearable propulsion, AI visual guidance, environmental analysis, emergency communication, and exploration records, Hydro-Nox presents a new standard for how humans can experience the underwater world.