This is simply cool. There’s no other way to put it.
Barcode.com: “On the football field, for example, heat prostration has led to several fatalities over the past few years. The problem starts during pre-season practices that take place under the intense summer sun. Identec has already developed a headband with an embedded heat-sensing chip. The RFID chips embedded in helmets developed by HotHead Technologies, combine RFID with a heat-sensing thermistor, offering plenty of range.”
From the hotheads technology website:
The H.O.T. System is a patent-pending, two-component package that embeds a heat sensing unit inside the helmet of an individual and collects and relays periodic temperature readings from that person’s skin to a portable data collector (A ruggedized PDA or Laptop Computer). The portable device is used to alert the individual or an observer that the person has exceeded an allowable temperature while the subject’s helmet is on.
If skin temperature ranges outside of the set parameters then the data collector will alert the sensor unit in the helmet to take temperature readings at a faster rate. The alert will be displayed on the data collector so the operator of the data collector can make a decision on whether to stop the current activity and seek to receive further observation from a professional and take measures to cool their temperature down. The alert will be automatically removed from the data collector as soon as the skin temperature falls back into the normal parameters.
There’s also a short video that shows the basic idea here.