SIXTHSENSE · Project

Wearable Health Monitor That Keeps First Responders Safe in Extreme Conditions

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Imagine firefighters battling a wildfire or rescue teams in the mountains — they push their bodies to dangerous limits, and nobody knows until someone collapses. SIXTHSENSE built a wearable patch that tracks vital signs in real time and sends a gentle vibration to the wearer's skin when something is off — like a sixth sense warning them before it's too late. Back at the command centre, a dashboard shows the health status of every team member so coordinators can pull someone out before they're in danger. It's like having a personal medic whispering in your ear through your skin, while your commander sees the full picture on screen.

By the numbers

consortium partners across the project

countries represented in the consortium

demo deliverables including hardware prototypes

total project deliverables produced

industry partners in the consortium

48%

industry partner ratio in the consortium

SMEs participating in the project

The business problem

What needed solving

First responders in extreme environments — wildfires, mountain rescues, industrial disasters — regularly push past safe physiological limits with no warning until someone collapses. Commanders have no real-time visibility into the health status of their deployed teams, making critical rotation and evacuation decisions based on guesswork rather than data. This blind spot costs lives, causes lasting health damage, and exposes organisations to significant liability.

The solution

What was built

The project built gamma-stage functional prototypes of a complete wearable health monitoring system including: microneedle biosensor patches, microfluidic sampling devices optimised for low flowrates, embedded sensor units with integrated interfaces, electrotactile stimulators for skin-based biofeedback, predictive human behaviour models, physiological strain assessment algorithms, a semantic decision support system, and an integrated command centre dashboard — totalling 28 demo deliverables across 37 total deliverables.

Audience

Who needs this

National fire and rescue services managing wildfire and disaster deploymentsPPE and safety wearable manufacturers seeking smart monitoring capabilitiesMining companies with workers in extreme heat or toxic environmentsMilitary and defence organisations equipping special operations unitsIndustrial safety consultancies advising high-risk workplaces

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Emergency services and fire departments

enterprise

Target: National or regional fire and rescue agencies

If you are a fire and rescue service dealing with heat-related injuries and fatigue collapses during wildfire deployments — this project developed a wearable biosensor patch with electrotactile feedback that monitors physiological strain in real time. The system includes predictive behaviour models that flag deterioration before it becomes critical, and a command centre dashboard for monitoring all 23 deployed operatives simultaneously. It could reduce line-of-duty health incidents during extended operations.

Occupational safety equipment

mid-size

Target: PPE and safety wearables manufacturers

If you are a safety equipment manufacturer looking to add smart monitoring to your product line — this project produced gamma-stage prototypes of patch-like sensor devices with microneedle arrays, embedded sensing units, and electrotactile stimulators across 28 demo deliverables. The technology integrates biosensors, microfluidics, and organic electrochemical transistor amplifiers into a single wearable form factor. Licensing this IP could give you a 2-3 year head start over building from scratch.

Mining and industrial operations

enterprise

Target: Mining companies with underground or high-temperature operations

If you are a mining operator dealing with heat stress and toxic gas exposure among underground crews — this project built functional prototypes of a real-time health monitoring system with optimised sensors for low flowrates and predictive human behaviour modelling. The integrated command centre dashboard lets surface supervisors track every worker's physiological status and receive early warnings. The system was designed for extreme environments where standard monitoring fails.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to deploy this system per worker?

The project data does not include pricing or per-unit cost information. As an RIA (Research and Innovation Action), the focus was on developing and validating the technology through gamma-stage prototypes. A licensing or co-development agreement with the consortium would be needed to determine commercial pricing.

Can this scale to monitor hundreds of workers simultaneously?

The project developed an integrated command centre dashboard (D7.12) and a basic data management infrastructure (D6.1) designed for real-time team monitoring. While the prototypes were tested at team scale, the architecture — with embedded sensor units feeding into predictive models and a central dashboard — is designed for scalable deployment across operational teams.

Who owns the IP and can I license the technology?

The consortium of 23 partners across 9 countries jointly developed the technology, with FUNDACION TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATION (Spain) as coordinator. IP is likely shared among partners per their consortium agreement. Contact TECNALIA as the starting point for licensing discussions on specific components like the biosensor patches, electrotactile stimulators, or the software platform.

Has this been tested with actual first responders?

The project explicitly built a methodology for sustainable inclusion of first responders in co-development. The progression from alpha to beta to gamma functional prototypes (D9.2, D9.7, D9.12) across the 2020-2023 project period indicates iterative testing and refinement cycles with practitioner involvement.

Does this comply with workplace health monitoring regulations?

Based on available project data, specific regulatory certifications are not mentioned. The system was designed as unobtrusive health monitoring to avoid hindering operational capacity, which suggests awareness of workplace monitoring acceptance requirements. Medical device certification (MDR) would likely be needed before commercial deployment in the EU.

Can this integrate with existing command and control systems?

The project delivered a simple SIXTHSENSE dashboard for operation monitoring (D7.9) and an integrated command centre dashboard (D7.12), plus a semantic decision support system (D6.6). Based on available project data, integration APIs with third-party C2 systems are not explicitly described, but the data management infrastructure (D6.1) suggests a modular architecture.

What biosensors does the system actually measure?

The project developed microneedle arrays (D4.2), patch-like sensor devices (D4.6), microfluidic components optimised for low flowrates (D4.5), and multi-electrode array (MEA) sensing platforms with organic electrochemical transistor amplifiers (D3.3, D3.6). These feed into an integrated physiological strain assessment system (D6.2, D6.4) for multimodal biosensor data analysis.

Consortium

Who built it

This is a large, industry-heavy consortium with 23 partners from 9 countries, and 48% of them are industry players — well above the typical EU project ratio. With 11 industry partners and 5 SMEs alongside 4 universities and 3 research organisations, the project was clearly built to move technology toward the market, not stay in the lab. The coordinator, TECNALIA (Spain), is one of Europe's largest applied research centres with a strong track record in technology transfer. The geographic spread across Western and Southeast Europe (AT, BA, DE, DK, ES, HR, IT, RS, SI) gives it access to diverse first responder ecosystems and regulatory environments. For a business buyer, this means the technology has already been shaped by industrial thinking and is more likely to be production-aware than a purely academic effort.

FUNDACION TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATIONCoordinator · ES
JOANNEUM RESEARCH FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MBHparticipant · AT
SENETICS HEALTHCARE GROUP GMBH & CO. KGparticipant · DE
CENTRO EUROPEO DI FORMAZIONE E RICERCA IN INGEGNERIA SISMICAparticipant · IT
TECNALIA SERBIA DOO BEOGRADparticipant · RS
UNIVERSIDAD DE LEONparticipant · ES
JOBST TECHNOLOGIES GMBHparticipant · DE
BIONANONET FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MBHparticipant · AT
METROHM DROPSENS SLparticipant · ES
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET CHEMNITZparticipant · DE
SMARTEX SRLparticipant · IT
AALBORG UNIVERSITETparticipant · DK
BIFLOW SYSTEMS GMBHparticipant · DE

How to reach the team

FUNDACION TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATION, Spain — one of Europe's largest applied research centres. SciTransfer can facilitate an introduction to the right team within TECNALIA.

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Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to explore licensing the SIXTHSENSE wearable monitoring technology or discuss integration into your safety products? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the development team and help structure the conversation. Contact us for a no-obligation briefing.

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