We got an e-mail this morning about the commercial launch of e-Celcius Performance, a connected pill that tracks the core temperature of the, ummm, wearer. Aimed at elite endurance athletes, the e-mail said Austrian swimmer Josef Kolbert would use the device on a swim across the English Channel today, August 25.
The pill, from the French company BodyCap, monitors temperatures every 30 seconds and sends measurements to an external monitor, which displays alerts when temperatures go outside a pre-set range. The ingestible comprises a sealed biomedical PVC shell, a temperature sensor, batteries, memory, an antenna, and a resin filling. Memory can hold 200 readings, but it’s unclear how to access that memory after the pill passes through the body — presumably via RF without bodily interference.
Each pill is 17.7mm by 8.9 mm and weighs 1.7 grams. The battery is good for 30 days, and the radio’s range is about 1 meter. A monitor can track up to three pills at a time.
The Channel Swimming Association, which tracks and assists in open water crossings in the English Channel, shows that Kolbert crossed from England to France on August 22, with a time of 14 hours 21 minutes. It was one of just 33 solo crossings this year, and just 1317 since 1875. There’s no record of a crossing today.
No pricing or distribution channel for the monitor was available.