- The new device effectively monitors core body temperature and updates users on their health status
- Originally built for rigorous athletic purposes, the device is now available for general public to combat the COVID-19
u-blox, a provider of positioning and wireless communication technologies in collaboration with greenTEG, a company involved in the development of heat flux sensors, have launched a new wearable for continuous and accurate core body temperature monitoring called the CORE. The device can communicate wirelessly using the u-blox NINA-B306 stand-alone Bluetooth 5 low energy module for tracking a user’s health status and alerts them when the core body temperature rises unexpectedly.
CORE is worn close to the body with a patch or a belt, which processes the sensed data to obtain an estimated core body temperature – generally defined as blood temperature – using an algorithm specifically designed for the task.
Assisting in wellness and safety of public
Initially developed to help athletes avoid overheating when training for and competing in extreme environments, such as ultra-marathons or the Ironman, the solution has been redeveloped 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 clients concerned with protecting their workforces’ and customers’ wellbeing and individuals in risk groups.
“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.”
“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.”