Opportunity for

• Investors interested in further development and commercialisation of this device
• Investors interested in commercial partnerships surrounding exclusive use of the device
• Medical device manufacturers interested in partnering for mass production of the device
• Researchers interested in capturing health and activity data through the device
  ^This opportunity is only for professional and sophisticated investors.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge: Agriculture workers often work alone or remotely. In Australia, this industry typically accounts for more than one in five workplace deaths. When working alone, the limited cellular network coverage and long response times limit injured workers' survival chances. Current remote worker tracking systems require significant user interaction and are easy to forget or inappropriate to wear in some situations, like a watch or pendant. There are at least 124,000 lone workers in Australia’s Agriculture sector alone, and over 50 million lone workers across the US, Canada, and Europe.

Current opportunity: Nakatomi and Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) have developed an insole IoT device that monitors for ‘injury’ events and then alerts a nominated emergency contact via long-range communications, all with no necessary user interaction. A functional prototype PCB was installed in a shoe insole and utilised to validate a hardware sensor suite and an injury event detection algorithm. Following on from this, the project is awaiting a further market research phase before commencing the next stage of hardware development, certification, and commercialisation. Opportunities exist for investors and manufacturers interested in supporting development, investors interested in partnering for distribution of the device in Australia and internationally, as well as researchers interested in utilising health and activity data for research purposes.

Other potential applications: This product also has the potential to benefit lone and remote workers outside the Agriculture sector, as well as the aged care, health care, research, and road & transport markets.

Read our related story - 'Intuitive farm safety device, SoleMate steps up for Aussie farmers' here.