SBIR Phase I: Wearable Fabric Sensor for Monitoring Hydration

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to detect real-time health risks (e.g. heat stroke, glucose). In general, the data collected from the developed sensor could lead to better understanding of health and disease processes, including the analysis of common diabetic neurological complications, the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF), and sweat monitoring for advanced prosthetic limb applications, bedridden patients, or athlete performance tracking leading to better treatments and health outcomes for all patients.

The proposed technology is the first lightweight fabric sensor to provide real-time information regarding hydration levels during exercise or training through selective determination of sodium levels, a better marker for athletic performance, safety, and injury. Initial applications will be to monitor hydration for endurance athletes. Approximately 17.6 million endurance athletes cross the finish line each year, in the US alone.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will focus on the development of a prototype wearable hydration monitor, validation of the prototype in the laboratory, and body testing in an exercise physiology laboratory. The need for well-managed hydration and the monitoring of physiological parameters in real-time is not only crucial for athletes to optimize performance but to also prevent illness and injury from occurring.

Understanding sweat loss and calculating hydration requirements to avoid dehydration or overhydration is a significant challenge for athletes. This is because sweat losses vary significantly from athlete to athlete both in terms of concentration of electrolytes and total volume of sweat lost. When sweating, an individual may lose as little as ~200mg of sodium per liter or as much as ~2000 mg.

This variance, combined with significant differences in sweat volume, lead to vastly different hydration requirements among individuals, to be addressed with the proposed device.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.