U-Blox connects GreenTeg Covid-19 wearable

  • June 2, 2020
  • Steve Rogerson

Heat flux sensor firm GreenTeg is using connectivity from fellow Swiss firm U-Blox to protect health and safety as people return to work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

They have announced the commercial launch of a venture brand called Core, 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.

“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, vice president 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.”

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 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, this was repurposed to address 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.

“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,” said Pelle Svensson, senior principal 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.”

GreenTeg develops and manufactures sensing products for thermal energy monitoring in real time. These are available for research and industry purposes, including applications in R&D, building and wearables.

With headquarters in Thalwil, Switzerland, U-Blox has offices in Europe, Asia and the USA. GreenTeg is headquartered in Zurich-Rümlang, Switzerland.