COBRA Wearable Wireless Personal Indirect Calorimeter for Metabolic Tracking

The objective of this proposal is the development and demonstration of a low-cost, wearable, easy to use, self-calibrating indirect calorimetry sensor capable of tracking energy expenditure and fuel substrate utilization (carbohydrate and fat oxidation). The availability of an easy-to-use personal indirect calorimeter (PIC) promises to revolutionize metabolic health (which is defined as having blood sugar, waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides all within a healthy range); and enhance endurance training protocols. The PIC provides data that machine algorithms can employ to offer individually tailored guidance to military personnel striving to meet professional standards for body composition and metabolic health, as well as endurance training to support mission execution. The proposed approach is to automate the gas sensor calibration protocol and enhance the features of an existing prototype personal indirect calorimeter to meet or exceed all the requirements set forth in the referenced DHA topic. Properly calibrated, the measurement performance of the existing prototype sensor has been shown to be comparable to a gold-standard metabolic cart. The existing sensor design achieves low cost, size, weight, and power (CSWaP), enabled by innovations described in four US and one European patents [1-5]. In addition to automating the gas calibration protocol, aspects of the existing prototype sensor electronics, firmware, wireless interface, and packaging will be updated to improve ease of use, reliability, manufacturability, and remote firmware upgrades. In production, the final commercial-grade product will provide both military and civilian users with on-demand capability to non-invasively track energy expenditure and the fraction of energy derived from oxidation of fats versus carbohydrates over a range of activity levels from rest to intense exercise. The resulting data will provide valuable, personalized guidance for optimizing nutrition and body composition and avoiding or reversing Type-2 diabetes.