Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner broke world records yesterday but to do that they needed the help of some seriously impressive tech that in the case of LifeMonitor, had never been tested at supersonic speeds
Felix Baumgartner's record breaking jump from the edge of space was an experiment that was performed at 'the edge of human capability' according to UK-based Equivital CEO, Anmol Sood.
Equivital provided their advanced EQ02 LifeMonitor system for the jump which monitored Felix's heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, body temperature, body activity and acceleration.
While Equivital's equipment was more than up to the task it was still completely untested ground as Sood explains, "This is the first time that we will be able to see data from a human freefalling at supersonic speed. It is essential to understand the impact of environment, speed and his equipment on how his body regulates and responds to the challenge."
Despite the risks involved Sood believes that the jump was more than worth it with the data being collected proving to be invaluable in furthering our knowledge of how the human body responds to such challenges and how we can use technology to compensate.
"This was a scientific experiment performed at the edge of human capability by a very brave man [and] we are already being approached by air force, air ambulance and space medicine institutes on application of the technology in these environments."
Sood went on to point out that being able to monitor Felix's state of the art suit was "very important for the use of such suits in future space travel or for use by the military".
Apparently they're still crunching the numbers but you can be sure that the moment we get those eye-watering stats through we'll be throwing them your way.
Source : rss[dot]feedsportal[dot]com