FAIRBORN, Ohio (Dayton Business Journal) -- A group of Dayton-area entities is teaming up on a new contract to develop technology for the military and commercial sector.

Aptima Inc., a Massachusetts-based firm that operates a spinoff company called Sentinel Occupational Safety in Fairborn, has been awarded a $2.8 million deal from the SEMI Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC) to create Sensor-based Monitoring and Assessment via Remote Telemetry and Wearables for Augmentation of Tactical Care and Health, also known as SMARTWATCH.

SMARTWATCH is an adaptable, wearable sensor platform with intelligent analytics to quickly identify warfighter health and environmental hazards in a wide range of settings. Funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, SMARTWATCH is being developed as an end-to-end, real-time sensing solution for the rigors of military operations.

Accurate, proactive monitoring has long been recognized as key to preventing injury and mortality in personnel exposed to a wide range of harmful conditions and stressors. However, limitations in current sensing technologies have made monitoring in harsh conditions impractical or technically unfeasible.

To overcome these issues, Aptima and Sentinel, along with partners Purdue University and University of Notre Dame, are developing SMARTWATCH as a rugged wrist wearable with swappable biosensors that can be adapted to numerous mission requirements. The platform will fuse a variety of physiological and environmental data to provide wearers, commanders and medical personnel with real-time health and safety intelligence.

For more on the project, visit the Dayton Business Journal.