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High concentrations of CO2 may develop particularly in the closed spaces during fires and can endanger the health of emergency personnel by causing serious physiological effects. The proposed prototype provides real-time continuous monitoring of CO2 in a wearable configuration sensing platform. A commercially available electrochemical CO2 sensor was selected due to its selectivity, sensitivity and low power demand. This was integrated onto an electronics platform that performed signal capture, processing and wireless communication, all within a compact, low-power, rugged enclosure. Wireless transmission (up to 1 km) of the sensor’s signal was achieved using a 2.4 GHz Zigbee module with an integrated ceramic antenna. The signal is currently received by a base station which is connected to a PC and monitored using HyperTerminal. The sensors are powered by a nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery which supplies power to the module for approximately 5 hours. The CO2 sensor is directly attached to the wireless module housed within the specially designed protective casing, and finally placed inside of the pocket on the boot of fire-fighter. Sensors are calibrated for CO2 concentrations ranging from atmospheric to 42000 ppm. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Union (Proetex FP6-2004-IST-4), the Centre for Bioanalytical Sciences (IDA-116294), and the CLARITY CSET (SFI-07/CE/I1147). Also, we thank to Diadora-Invicta Group (Italy) for providing the testing boot.

Wearable sensing applications have attracted much attention in recent years. The aim of the FP6 funded Proetex project is improving safety and efficiency of emergency personnel by developing integrated wearable sensor systems. This paper describes recent developments in the integration of sensing platforms into wearables for the continuous monitoring of environmentally harmful gases surrounding emergency personnel. Low-power miniature CO and CO2 sensors have been successfully integrated in a jacket collar and boot worn by emergency personnel. These sensors need to provide information about the level of gas in the surrounding environment without obstructing the activities of the wearer. This has been achieved by integrating special pockets on the jacket and boot of fire-fighters. Each sensor is attached to a sensing module for signal accommodation and data transfer. The sensor performance has been evaluated by simulation of real-life situations. These wearable gas sensors will dramatically improve personnel awareness of potential hazard and can function as a personal warning system. In this way, fire-fighter’s jacket and boot not only protect the wearer, but have a second function of providing valuable information on external hazards. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Science Foundation Ireland (07/CE/I1147) and the EU project FP6-2004-IST-4-026987. We also acknowledge contribution of University of Pisa (Italy), Zarlink Semiconductor (UK), and Diadora/Invicta Group (Italy).

Proetex is a European Integrated Project dedicated to the realization of a micro- and nano-technology-based wearable equipment for emergency operators. During the first 3 years of work, two different and progressively improved versions of a complete “smart” uniform for fire-fighters and emergency rescuers have been realized. These garments aim at monitoring both physiological parameters, position and posture of the operators and the presence of external potential sources of danger and to send these data to a remote coordinating unit. In the following, the main issues of the design and realization will be described and discussed.

The recent success in lowering of the low detection limit of ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) has opened up new application areas (most notably environmental analysis). The new possibilities have intensified issues that weren’t critical in other application fields. In particular, the potential of ISEs to be integrated as detector systems in autonomous, deployable devices for environmental analysis have opened the question of the measure of uncertainty in prediction of unknown concentration based on calibration as well as the necessity of reduction or even elimination of calibration itself. Here we point out the need for the maximal efficiency of using obtained results based on utilization of solid-contact ISEs for heavy metal analysis in soil. We advocate altering the current definition of detection limit and using signal-to-noise ratio as suggested earlier by Bakker and Pretsch.[1] We also suggest new method for jointly estimating the calibration curve and the unknown concentrations using all the data. This method is in statistical analysis called Bayesian analysis. It allows more accurate prediction of unknown concentration, especially near and even below the detection limit. Furthermore, it allows using of multiple sensors (without disregarding poor performing sensors) which will allow further tightening of the prediction intervals. Finally, we will present initial work on developing “calibrationless” chemical sensors where we use ISEs as model system. We are developing tests that will enable us to understand whether the surface or the bulk of the membrane has been altered (i.e. due to biofouling or poisoning of the electrode surface) thus avoiding the need to re-calibrate the sensors. [1] Bakker E. Pretsch E; Trends Anal. Chem.; 2005, 24, (3), 199

The development of wearable sensing technologies is a great challenge which is being addressed by the Proetex FP6 project (www.proetex.org). Its main aim is the development of wearable sensors to improve the safety and efficiency of emergency personnel. This will be achieved by continuous, real-time monitoring of vital signs, posture, activity, and external hazards surrounding emergency workers. We report here the development of carbon dioxide (CO2) sensing boot by incorporating commercially available CO2 sensor with a wireless platform into the boot assembly. Carefully selected commercially available sensors have been tested. Some of the key characteristics of the selected sensors are high selectivity and sensitivity, robustness and the power demand. This paper discusses some of the results of CO2 sensor tests and sensor integration with wireless data transmission, {"references":["D. Diamond, \"Internet-scale sensing\". Analytical chemistry, 2004.\n76(15): p. 278A-286A.","D. Diamond, K.T. Lau, S. Brady, and J. Cleary, \"Integration of analytical\nmeasurements and wireless communications-Current issues and future\nstrategies\". Talanta, 2008. 75(3): p. 606-612.","P. Bonato, \"Advances in wearable technology and applications in\nphysical medicine and rehabilitation\". Journal of NeuroEngineering and\nRehabilitation, 2005 2:2.","D. Diamond, S. Coyle, S. Scarmagnani, and J. Hayes, \"Wireless sensor\nnetworks and chemo-/biosensing\". Chemical reviews, 2008. 108(2): p.\n652-679.","S.P. Jayaraman, \"Enhancing the quality of life through wearable\ntechnology\". Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, IEEE,\n2003. 22(3): p. 41-48.","L.G. Paradiso R. , Taccini N., Wearable System for Vital Signs Monitoring in Studies in health technology and informatics. 2004, IOS\nPress. p. 253-259.","S. Brady, L.E. Dunne, A. Lynch, B. Smyth, and D. Diamond, \"Wearable\nSensors? What is there to sense?\" Studies in health technology and informatics, 2005. 117: p. 80-88.","D.S. Robertson, \"Health effects of increase in concentration of carbon\ndioxide in the atmosphere\". Current Science, 2006. 90(12): p. 1607-1609.","Alphasense Ltd, Solid state-carbon dioxide sensor Doc. Ref. TDS/CO2/\nIssue 2 2008; Available from: www.alphasense.com.\n[10] Jennic Ltd, Product Brief - JN5139-xxx-Myy. 2008; Available from: www.jennic.com."]}