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DASA to test wearable tech for physiological data

22/10/21

Mark Say Managing Editor

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The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched a competition to test the use wearable sensors to collect physiological data to monitor for signs of injury.

In a project that is focused on military users but could provide lessons for healthcare and other services, the agency within the Ministry of Defence has set up a new innovation focus area (IFA) on next generation wearable technology.

This is seeking demonstrations of what data can be gathered from wearable technology and how it might support more effective decision making by defence users to prevent injury to personnel.

The competition, which is being run on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), will make up to £200,000 available over 12 months to support projects with technical readiness levels of 3-6.

The IFA is focused on two themes: a demonstration of new sensor technologies and the data they can generate against existing validated measures; and the exploitation of data from current or novel wearable systems to provide prognostic insights into human health and wellbeing.

DASA said projects may cover: the demonstration of measurements not generally available through wearable tech, such as hydration status and stress markers; form factors that enable the collection of data in a minimally intrusive format; and physical, psychological and environmental stressors such as heat or cold, altitude and infection relevant to specific baselines.

The competition is open for proposals until 5 January 2022, with a second cycle scheduled to run until 2 March.

Image from iStock, ra2studio

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