SPORTS. ATHLETES
Ingestible Core Temperature Monitoring Pill
HARDWARE | FIRMWARE | MOBILE/WEB APPS
Project Overview
An ingestible sensor pill designed to monitor and transmit core body temperature for athletes, astronauts, and high-performance professionals. The data is captured by a wearable recorder and synced to mobile and web apps for real-time tracking, analysis, and performance optimization.
Client Requirement & Objectives
Temperature-Based Performance Insight: The product had to monitor internal body temperature to help athletes understand the link between core temperature spikes and performance drops.
Heat Map Generation: The system needed to generate and visualize heat maps based on location and temperature, enabling actionable insights for cooling strategies and training adjustments.
FDA-Compliant Wireless Design: Required custom firmware for an ingestible pill using an FDA-approved radio frequency, with strict adherence to transmission intervals and safety regulations.
Cross-Platform Data Sync: The solution had to include a BLE-enabled recorder and mobile apps (iOS/Android) for collecting, storing, and visualizing session data in real-time.
System Design & Build
Custom Pill Firmware: Developed lightweight, power-optimized firmware to transmit temperature readings from the ingestible sensor over a compliant low-frequency RF protocol.
Multi-Sensor Syncing: Built a custom protocol allowing up to seven pills to sync and transmit to a single recorder, maintaining session integrity and accurate time-stamping.
Data Recorder with BLE: Designed a wearable recorder that receives pill transmissions and forwards them via BLE to connected mobile apps for real-time access and cloud sync.
Analytics-Ready App Ecosystem: Created mobile applications capable of displaying real-time vitals, session summaries, and temperature-based heat maps for athlete monitoring.
Project Tech Stack
Key Challenges & Solutions
Custom Communication Protocol: Designing a full comms protocol over the RF physical layer was complex due to ingestible constraints and real-time needs. We implemented synchronized transmission intervals with session-based ID tagging to handle multiple sensors concurrently.
Reliable Flash Management: Flash storage needed to handle multiple sensor sessions and ensure data integrity during syncs. We built a rolling memory management system that stored data until mobile sync and auto-cleared after successful upload.
Transmission Compliance & Safety: RF transmissions from within the body had to follow strict FDA guidelines for signal power and intervals. Our team rigorously tested transmission cycles and ensured full protocol compliance across device firmware.
Multi-Platform Data Flow: Ensuring seamless data handoff from pill to recorder to app and server required precise timing and retry mechanisms. We built a resilient communication pipeline with sync retries, session buffering, and cloud failover support. .
Client
HQInc. develops wireless temperature sensors for body temperature measurement. Their core offering is the Cortemp temperature monitoring series which includes wireless wearable body temperature and an ingestible temperature sensor for internal core body temperature measurements as it travels through the body's digestive tract.
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