Hidalgo, a U.K.-based technology company, is providing the Catlin Arctic Survey expedition team with the Equivital body-worn physiological monitoring system.
The Catlin Arctic Survey is a Polar expedition organized by an international collaboration between explorers and some scientific entities, including the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and the World Wildlife Foundation.
The key aim of the survey is to help scientists gain a better understanding of what is going on with the floating sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. The survey will help scientists refine their predictions of when the ice will cease to be a year-round feature of the Arctic Ocean.
Team members will be wearing Hidalgo's Equivital physiological monitoring system throughout the expedition. The Equivital units will continuously measure and record the conditions of the explorers while on the ice, providing an indication of their general well-being as well as detailed physiological data.
The use of Equivital on the Catlin Arctic Survey offers an opportunity to assess how the body responds in the extreme Arctic environment. Incorporating high-tech sensors in a belt worn around the chest, Equivital measures ECG, heart rate, respiration rate and effort, skin temperature and body orientation and physical impact.
Team members will also ingest a 'core pill' containing a miniature temperature sensor that communicates core body temperature readings to the Equivital unit. The unit will continuously record and transmit the wearer's physiological data, which will be sent to the survey vessel's onboard central data unit before being transmitted back to the UK headquarters.
Core body temperatures will be recorded and sent back to track team members' physical and mental responses when exposed to extended periods in extremely low temperatures.
Equivital has been designed for use in a range of demanding applications, including telehealth, first responder and paramedic, military, occupational welfare, sports performance analysis and physical endurance research. The Equivital system can display data in real time or store it on a memory card.
Hidalgo is part of the Jaltek Group and is based in Cambridge, England. Hidalgo is a technology design and development solutions company specializing in radio-based communications systems development as well as software and hardware for consumer, medical and industrial systems.
The expedition team's scientific findings will be taken to the national negotiating teams working to replace the Kyoto Protocol agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties in Copenhagen in December 2009.
