The health and fitness industry strives to provide customers with the best technologies and features available to help users train in the right zone and duration for best results. Core body temperature is a factor in this analysis, but has been largely unavailable due to the invasiveness of accurate sensors, and the variation between skin temperature and core body temperature. An accurate estimate of core body temperature is also valuable for occupations in which heat stress and heat illness are risk factors. Because of the difficulty in directly measuring core body temperature, a practical alternative was developed.

In most applications, a person's initial core body temperature can be assumed as 98.6 °F at the person's resting heart rate. From that or an alternative starting point, ECTemp utilizes a mathematical process to calculate the change in core body temperature based on heart rate time series data; no temperature sensor is needed. Field testing has demonstrated accurate temperature estimates using ECTemp even when operated 24/7 for several days. With this new capability, a worker can be alerted if and when a predicted core body temperature exceeds a predetermined threshold, thus avoiding potential heat illness or undue stress.

The easy-to-implement algorithm can be incorporated in commercial heart rate monitors to provide a value-added feature. Core body temperature can be displayed in real time on many devices such as wrist-worn displays, smart-phones, or heads-up displays. ECTemp can be used during activity for real-time data and/or post-activity for analysis.

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