Further development and validation of the VO2 Master wearable respiratory monitor

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By the end of March 2015, the Engage project between VO2 Master Health Sensors Inc. (formerly Kal Kinesio Tek Inc.) and Dr. Kenneth Chau at UBC will have successfully concluded. Over the duration of this project, a team of entrepreneurs, academics, and students created an early alpha prototype of a wearable, solid-state, low-power VO2 monitor that has been called the VO2 Master. Drastic design optimization has lead to reduced cost of manufacturing by a factor of 5, reduced size by a factor of 4, and reduced power consumption by a factor of 50. The stage is now set to exploit these innovations and develop a Beta prototype ready for production and commercialization. VO2 Master Health Sensors Inc. and Dr. Kenneth Chau wish to continue their collaboration under the project "Further Development and Validation of the VO2 Master Wearable Respiratory Monitor" through the Engage Plus program. This project will contribute research and development that will be vital for the commercial success of the VO2 Master. The goals of this project are the following: 1) To develop an iterative process for creating and refining a Beta prototype of the VO2 Master that is capable of high-accuracy measurement of oxygen, flow rate, and pressure. 2) To validate the repeatability of the measurements from the VO2 Master under a wide range of environmental conditions. 3) To improve the user experience through improvements in software, wireless communication with other wearable sensors, and smart features for user interaction with the device. The funding will be predominantly used to hire 4 students (2 MASc and 2 BASc) to carry out the bulk of the proposed work. A smaller portion of the funding will also be used for prototype manufacturing using the brand new STAR facilities at UBC Okanagan.