SBIR Phase II: Development of An Accurate Low-Cost Wearable Ultraviolet Dosimeter For The General Population

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to provide a new tool promoting healthy sun behavior, a major public health issue in the US as melanoma incidences have increased steadily over the past 60 years. This technology is already used in clinical studies on sun behavior across a variety of populations (children, adults, melanoma survivors, people suffering from lupus) and can significantly improve the quality of life for patients with disorders requiring particularly sensitive UV detectors to prevent exposure to potentially carcinogenic levels of sun. This proposed project will positively impact broader health with a device that can be incorporated in personal electronic wearable devices. The proposed project will support the advanced development of low-cost UV measurement. Sunlight is a complex electromagnetic source generating spectra that vary strongly with the position of the sun, location on earth, weather conditions from the ground to the stratosphere, and local shadows. Previous detectors were based on simple linear, single wavelength calibrations inappropriate for a signal with a varying spectral shape. The proposed project will extend the development of a new system with a detection limit of 0.005 UVI (UV Index, the health-relevant measure of intensity), compared with the state of practice of 0.1 UVI; this extends traditional detection limits by integrating machine learning. The Phase II research objectives are to engineer a prototype system, reduce the package size, extend the machine learning capabilities, and optimize system performance in real-world environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.