A Wireless Hydration Monitor for Naval Aircrew

Naval aircrews face a difficult balancing act. Hydration is important to performance; however, relieving oneself in flight can often be a challenge. Operational observations suggest that aircrew may limit their fluid intake leading up to and during flights. Whether intentional or not, when combined with increasing mission lengths, heavy flight gear, and the low humidity environment, they may place themselves in a situation where their level of dehydration causes cognitive deficits putting them at risk of a physiologic episode.Creare proposes to develop a wireless hydration level monitor (HLM) that provides real-time, accurate, and robust feedback on the wearer’s hydration status. Our system combines novel algorithms to derive hydration in the operational flight environment and address the needs of Navy. During Phase I, we will demonstrate feasibility of our proposed approach, characterize system performance, and develop a design for the system to be developed during Phase II. During Phase II we plan to develop a fully functional system and conduct human subject validation trials to evaluate use of the system in relevant environment.