Prototype Development of a Smart Personal Protective Respirator with a Color-signaling Triage System: Enhancing Disaster Response through Real-time Biometric Monitoring

This study presents a self-wearable smart personal protective respirator featuring a color-signaling triage system designed to facilitate rapid assessment during large-scale physical disasters. The device enables individuals to wear the respirator, allowing responders to quickly identify critically ill patients through real-time biometric signal acquisition and intuitive LED-based visualization. Clinical triage criteria, developed with input from emergency medicine experts, informed a severity classification algorithm based on heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, and posture. To implement this system, an ergonomic head-type respirator prototype was created, integrated with a compact sensor module that includes a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, a barometric pressure and temperature sensor, and a combined accelerometer and gyroscope sensor. Additionally, custom sensors were developed: a respiration sensor utilizing nickel oxide nanoparticles patterned by laser, and an ECG sensor made by spraying silver nanoparticles onto a flexible polyimide film and then laser-patterning it into a serpentine shape. The system effectively detects vital signs and visualizes severity levels using color signals. Although field deployment was not part of this study, the prototype demonstrated potential to reduce triage time and enhance disaster response efficiency. Further validation in real-world settings is recommended.