Our Technology

The Canaria Earpiece is also planned to be used in government agency and commercial astronaut training programs as it was originally conceived for use by NASA aboard the International Space Station to solve the dual problems of hazardous pockets of C02 and a black hole of biometric data for which the company won the Global NASA Space Apps Award for Best Use of Hardware in 2016.

The Canaria is currently being commercialised for use in the mining, oil, and gas sectors as well as applications in the construction and transport industries to tackle the same level of environmental challenges found in manned space exploration.

Wearability

The technology is based on PPG readings which shine LED and infrared light into blood rich tissue samples, allowing photo sensors to measure the spectrum of light absorbed by the blood haemoglobin.

ICUs use an older version of our technology to measure SpO2 and heart rate levels. The Canaria can derive two more metrics from these raw wavelengths: heart rate variability and respiratory rate. Heart rate variability is the best indicator of cognitive fatigue and we are one of the first companies in the world to read respiratory rate from behind the ear.

Usability

The Canaria is designed to be worn behind the ear with minimum impact to the wearer. One of the priorities was to minimise the mass that needed to be placed on a user’s ear. To achieve this, the company installed a wireless charging system, enabling the system to have almost continuous power supplied from an easily accessible source.

This system allows the primary device power to be supplied externally, and also provides a small battery to act as a buffer – ensuring continuous data collection and transmission is maintained.
usability

To further minimise the size of the earpiece, the Canaria has a combined Bluetooth and processor system on chip. To measure heart rate and SpO2 levels, the chip (A Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832) pulses an IR LED into the blood vessels behind the wearer’s ear. The reflected signals from this diode are then picked up by an IR detector, where changes in light intensity are converted to a varying voltage signal.

This signal is then amplified by an Op-amp, operating in non-inverting amplification mode, and fed into an input on the nRF52831. The signal is sampled by the nRF52831 and temporarily stored in memory before being transferred via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to the user’s smartphone or to central medical server.

The circuit board is designed in a unique trapezoidal shape. In addition to the three mounting holes present on the board, this shape ensures the PCB is firmly secured inside the earpiece casing, ensuring the system’s longevity.