Canaria

Out-of-this-world fashion with function: clothing or accessories for earth or space wear!

Every space traveler – even the robotic ones – should feel? their very best during the journey, infused with the very best data and technology available. Earthlings can follow suit. Design a space data-tech-fashion wearable in the form of clothing or accessories that will collect or distribute data and technology in the following categories:

Design for Interconnectivity (staying more connected to team, community, and tools)

• enhance the work/life experience of humans and/or capabilities of robots  

Design for Health (biometrics, physical and emotional health, and/or environmental alerts)

• maintain or improve the health and well-being of the human
• provide early warning for unhealthy environmental factors (air quality, radiation, outgassing, temperature)

Design for Entertainment (sights, sounds, music, activity)

• enhance the human experience whether during work or play

The Canaria system of CO2 monitor patch and earpiece acts as a lifeline to the wearer, simultaneously monitoring their heart rate, blood oxygen, and atmospheric CO2 levels. Named after the canaries used by Victorian miners as a warning system in areas of dangerous gas pockets, the Canaria has an audible danger threshold alarm to alert the wearer when they need to head back to safety. Data is automatically transferred by Bluetooth Low Energy to iOS and Android apps or even hospital eHealth wardware using the industry-standard Bluetooth Pulse Oximetry Profile. The patch contains the CO2 monitor and batteries that provide wireless charging power to the earpiece as well as sending data of CO2 levels to the monitor hardware. The earpiece contains the blood oxygenation and heart rate monitor and transmits those body vital signs to the monitor hardware. The earpiece has battery capacity to run for over an hour away from the CO2 monitor patch that charges it.

The benefits of Canaria mark it out as the future of wearable tech vital signs monitoring. It’s unobtrusive and non-invasive, allowing the wearer to change clothes, sleep undisturbed, and put headphones over it without the worry of it catching onto surrounding items. It analyses large data sets meaning that as well as detecting problems in ventilation systems, it can also help to fix them by supplying feedback about problem areas. The ability to gain continuous blood oxygen and heart rate data from individuals in space provides other research benefits, allowing changes to human physiology in space to be better monitored and planning for long duration spaceflight to be improved. Most importantly for space use, its hard 3D printable case protects the delicate microchips within from solar radiation.

More applications

Canaria is primarily designed for use on long-haul space missions, aboard space stations, and for commercial use in space hotels. As well as this, Canaria has a bounty of life-saving earth-bound applications. C02 pockets remain a huge problem for mining industries and tunnelling, and the introduction of Canaria provides a solution for the reduction of casualties. Use in hospitals offers the ability for doctors to monitor whole wards of patients constantly, allowing them the opportunity to respond to critical warning signs earlier; this is especially critical for cardiac arrests, strokes and Intensive Care Units. Mountaineers require blood oxygen readings regularly when facing the pitfalls of changing altitude levels. Military applications in war-zones are vast, counteracting chemical warfare as well as keeping tabs on soldiers’ vital signs.

Eagle PCB layout editor for the elecronics design

AutoCAD Fusion 360 3D design studio for the casing industrial design

Bluetooth LE Pulse Oxymeter Profile standard as the primary interface to 3rd-party apps