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Deepinder Goyal Suggests Temple Wearable Could Help Check Pilot Fitness in the Future
- •Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal suggested that his upcoming head-worn wearable, Temple, could potentially be used in the future to assess whether pilots or air force personnel are fit to fly.
- •Temple features a technology called BrainFlow, which is designed to continuously monitor changes associated with blood flow in the brain rather than just the scalp.
- •Recent validation studies involving 60 participants showed that Temple BrainFlow tracked brain blood volume with a strong correlation during various physiological challenges.
- •Goyal clarified that Temple is not currently a certified aviation-safety system or a medical device capable of diagnosing pilot fitness, and the research remains in early stages.
- •Long-term possibilities for the wearable include ongoing research into a thoughts-to-text feature that could potentially be integrated into future versions of the device.
Key Questions Answered
Temple is a head-worn health-tracking device designed to sit against the side of the head and continuously collect physiological signals, notably tracking cerebral blood flow and changes associated with blood flow in the brain through its BrainFlow feature.
In its second validation study involving 60 participants undergoing three physiological challenges, Temple BrainFlow tracked brain blood volume with a correlation of 0.84 to 0.91, significantly outperforming its correlation with scalp blood volume, particularly during a head-down tilt test.
Deepinder Goyal suggested that Temple could one day help assess whether pilots or Indian Air Force personnel are physically and physiologically fit for flight missions, and mentioned that a research team is working on a long-term 'thoughts-to-text' feature for future device versions.
