Time Synchronized Soft Miniaturized Wireless Sensors for Remote Frostbite Prevention

Frostbite affects workers of all disciplines from recreational hikers, mountain climbers, snow cleanup crews, construction workers, electrical, oil, gas, and crew workers, police officers and firefighters, baggage handlers, and soldiers. While frostbite can occur at the nose, ears, cheeks, chin, and groin, the areas of greatest concern are the hands and feet due to peripheral vasoconstriction and decreased blood flow. Currently, there is a lack of monitoring systems capable of wirelessly monitoring a group of individuals at high risk of cold stress (e.g. oil gas workers, firefighters, and mountain climbers). Specifically, there is a need for sensors able to assess localized skin temperature in the distal extremities (fingers and toes) with a high degree of accuracy in miniaturized, wireless form factors suitable for mounting on distal extremities of the fingers and toes. Finally, these sensors must be able to communicate with a central mobile device to alert users of impending frostbite. Sibel will modify its existing small, flexible, and FDA-cleared wearable skin and body temperature sensors for use in remote frostbite sensing. The skin temperature sensor (ANNE Button) will achieve temperature resolution of 0.2°C, 72 hours of battery life, and operate in cold environments down to -60°C. In addition, Sibel will modify its remote monitoring platform to synchronize up to 500 sensors to a mobile device to enable monitoring for a large body of individuals with secure cloud communication to alert users and broader observers the risk of impending frostbite localized to individual extremities and body locations. Sibel will first modify our existing sensor hardware for operation to meet the austere requirements of cold weather operation with additional miniaturization. Then, Sibel will augment our software platform with a new dashboard and user interface for location specific monitoring of fingers, toes, and other locations for single and multiple users. Lastly, Sibel will conduct bench, focus group testing, and field testing to ensure the new system is accurate and field operational. We anticipate successfully developing and producing 500 new wireless skin temperature sensors optimized for operation in cold stress monitoring situations. We further anticipate high user acceptance >90% and performance that meets the criteria outlined in the RFA.