Development of the first low-cost, fire/water resistant, clinical-grade biometric sensors and method to embed them into heat-resistant fabrics and protective clothing.

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"* Signal Biometrics are an innovative sensor and vital signs monitoring company borne out of F1 motorsport where our Director's Dr Ian Roberts and Alan van der Merwe, currently work as the FIA F1 Rescue Coordinator, and FIA F1 Medical Car Driver. * Despite 1000 in-car sensors, the challenges of heat, conductivity (on electronics) and integrating a biometric sensor into protective fabrics mean that there is no sensor/system on the market to monitor the vital signs of drivers or pit-crew - resulting in accidents being attended uninformed of the victim's status. * To address this, we intend to develop the first reusable, low-cost, fire & water resistant, clinical-grade, biometric sensors and establish the optimum method for embedding them directly into fire resistant fabric & personal protective clothing to allow vital signs monitoring in the most extreme environments, where previously not possible (See App2). * The project is being driven by demand from the motorsport, military & first responder industries to monitor in real-time the vital signs of employees in high-risk situations e.g. in a burning building - enabling quicker, safer, informed safety & healthcare interventions after an accident occurs. Although initially targeted at motorsport (Y1), the technology has much wider potential by enabling any item of protective clothing to be embedded with a biometric sensor - opening up applications including extreme sports, rescue and heavy manufacturing, where the ability to remotely, noninvasively monitor large group of people involved in hazardous environments is not possible at present. * Working with the FIA, we have so far developed proof of concept hardware & software to allow continuous, remote monitoring of 100 user's vital signs concurrently in real-time. The project focuses on overcoming the technical challenges associated with developing new material properties - fire & water resistance - and the manufacturing method - reusable, low-cost, integration into fire-resistant, protective fabric/clothing - for clinical-grade biometric sensors without compromising performance and comfort. * Our technology will be the first of its' kind and is an important step to us developing a full range of wearable sensors to measure body temperature, heart rate variability, galvanic skin response in environments of extreme heat and humidity. The market for enterprise biometric wearables will reach £9.6bn ($12.2bn) by 2018 (56.1% CAGR - Fung Global Retail and Technology, 2015) and believe the project will result in turnover of £25m by Y5, 50% related to exports, with 5 new jobs created."