COVID-19: wearable for continuous and accurate core body temperature monitoring

u-blox and greenTEG, a company specialising in the development of heat flux sensors, are announcing the commercial launch of  a new venture brand, named CORE. 

It is a wearable for continuous and accurate core body temperature monitoring. The device, which communicates wirelessly using the u-blox NINA-B306 stand-alone Bluetooth 5 low energy module, can be used to track its users’ wellness status as they return to the workplace from their homes, and alerts them when their core body temperature rises unexpectedly.

CORE uses an innovative approach to continuously monitor core body temperature with accuracies rivaling those of ingestible sensors. 

Worn close to the body with a patch or a belt CORE translates sensed data into an estimate of the core body temperature – commonly defined as the temperature of blood as it leaves the heart’s aortic valve – using an algorithm specifically trained for the task.

Initially developed to help athletes avoid overheating when training for and competing in extreme environments, such as ultra-marathons or the Ironman, the solution was repurposed to address new challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Target groups include the general public that is seeking to return to work safely, business owners and patrons concerned with protecting their workforces’ and customers’ wellbeing, and individuals in risk groups.

“We needed a small and pre-certified low power Bluetooth module that could help keep the size of the overall solution to a minimum while offering the connectivity options, the considerable memory, and the reliability our application required,” says Holger Hendrichs, VP of Sales and Marketing at greenTEG. “The u-blox NINA-B306 looked like a promising candidate. When we found out that it interfaced with Garmin devices using the ANT+ protocol, for us a critical feature, our choice was clear.”

“This application perfectly demonstrates the value that our NINA-B3 series of Bluetooth 5 low energy modules can bring to wearable applications, including their small size, their low power consumption, a full megabyte of Flash memory, and their powerful Arm Cortex-M4 microprocessor,” says Pelle Svensson, Senior Principal, Product Strategy Short Range Radio at u-blox. “In these uncertain and testing times, it’s encouraging to see our technology help keep people safe and, hopefully, flatten the curve.”