Thermolab

ThermoLab - effective Body Core Temperature Measurement

There are different ways for measuring physical and psychological stresses. Deriving stress from body temperature, measured under scientifically established conditions, is one of them. The TL-08 ThermoLab is designed to capture and record the body core tempe- rature in the forehead and thoracic regions of a proband, whereby the temperature values are calculated from temperatures measured on the body's surface. ThermoLab hardware meets scientific require- ments for core temperature measurement according to the thermal flow formula, as well as the technical and constructional requirements for use on the International Space Station ISS. Designed for use under extreme conditions, ThermoLab is particularly suitable for those, whose physical or mental condition must be determined quickly and effectively, such as highly stressed occupational groups and extreme sportspeople. Due to the ease of its handling, the use of ThermoLab is virtually unlimited.

ThermoLab in space

Already in February 2009 the TL-08 came to the International Space Station with the russian cargo ship Progress M-66. Data acquisition is in process since October 2009. The scientists from the Center for Space Medicine in Berlin want to find out, how the body's core temperature behaves under stress in zero gravity. Read the complete report, published in GoSpace:

GoSpace number 04 (digest)

The functional principle:

The TL-08 ThermoLab Controller is used to measure temperature values from the surface and the area surrounding the corresponding measurement point on the proband’s skin. The device calculates the core body temperature from these values. Provided is the recording of temperature values by two double temperature sensors on the forehead and chest of the volunteers. The device is controlled by using one button and the corresponding response message on an LED, and via a four-line LC display (text display - 20 characters per line).

Two temperatures are captured from each of the two sensors: the body temperature of the subject and the environmental temperature at a specific distance from the first sensor.The core body temperature is calculated from the measured temperature values. The current determined core body temperature values, plus addi- tional information on duration of current measurement, battery charge state and available memory capacity, sensor type used, and the current date and time, are displayed on the screen during measurements.

The measured temperature values, as well as the hereby calculated core body temperatures calculated from them are stored in the TL-08 along with the associated times in the 1 GB large flash block of the TL-08. Readout of the, in this way saved data, is done over an USB data cable, which can be connected to the device's combination jack instead of the temperature sensors. When connected to a PC system via the USB interface, ThermoLab behaves just like a commercially available external drive.