A Novel Core Body
Temperature Sensor
Accurate, wearable, non-invasive measurement
of internal body temperatures
Measuring Internal Temperature… From the Outside
It all started when DARPA was looking for a mobile, wearable sensor to protect troops in Afghanistan from serious injury and death from heat stress. Dr. Zoya Popovic put the problem to the talented research students in her University of Colorado Radio Frequency Lab and came up with a novel application of technologies normally associated with measuring the temperature of stars thousands of light years away; turning it inwards to look deep into the human body where we can accurately measure the temperature of tumors, monitor for brain temperature increases in the critical time after traumatic brain injury or stroke and many other applications.
This is just one of many applications that an be served by this technology. Because our bodies have a lot more to tell us than just 98.6 degrees.
The Technology
The team at LumenAstra has come a long way since first demonstrating the science with large discrete components mounted on a 2x4 in an anechoic chamber at the University of Colorado. The technology uses a novel, highly sensitive radiometer measuring black body radiation (Planck’s Law) that all matter in the universe generates, proportional to temperature.
Technologists and researchers have long thought that the same science that enables a radio telescope to measure star temperatures, should be able to measure internal body temperature. But, isolating an internal organ temperature proved to be quite difficult until Dr Zoya Popovic, Distinguished Professor and IEEE Fellow at the University of Colorado, along with several of her PhD researchers, figured out what others had overlooked. The science was proven and a strong patent with 17 claims was submitted, critically reviewed and issued in 2019. Since then, we have added several more pending patents to the portfolio.
Since then, LumenAstra has iterated the design from the early 2x4 down to a 32mm diameter sensor that successfully isolates brain temperature from the much stronger intervening skin/fat/muscle & bone temperatures. And it shows minute changes in brain temperature in real-time!
Visit the rest of our site to explore some of the many applications our customer interactions have uncovered.