Indian Contest Calls for Invention of Cooling Jackets In Effort to Reduce Heat Stroke

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 10.15.2010 at 2:12 pm 6 Comments

Hot Work A state in southern India is sponsoring a contest to design an air-conditioned jacket that could help cool off outdoor workers. via Flickr/ antkriz

Hoping to entice young residents to work outside, authorities in southern India announced a contest worth more than $20,000 to the winning designer of an air-conditioning jacket.

Authorities in the southern state of Kerala challenged individuals and research groups to come up with a viable prototype. A committee will select 10 options, and each inventor will get about $2,200 to develop their concepts. The winner gets $22,000, which is 1 million rupees.

Incidentally, the jackets are unlikely to help workers living in Kerala itself — the state has pretty mild weather, and tourists flock to its tropical beaches. But millions of Kerala residents work elsewhere in India or overseas, often in extreme heat. Summer temperatures can surpass 120 degrees in parts of India and the Persian Gulf, and heat-related deaths are reported every year. Keralites often work in construction in booming Arab nations.

The cool jacket could be a boon for construction and agricultural workers, according to state officials. They say it will also enhance efficiency and productivity, according to the website Indian Express.

The communist-ruled state announced a separate contest last year to entice inventors to build a better coconut picker, but none of the designs has been successful.

Plenty of cooling jackets and vests are already available; American and Australian troops use a cooling vest that involves a special gel like the kind used in freezer pacs, for instance. Some would-be Indian innovators may want to check out this Instructable for inspiration.

[AFP]

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6 Comments

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aerosphere

10/15/10 at 6:10 pm

My idea would be a jacket partly filled with a layer of dry ice. Placing sockets of it on the inwards part, padded off(with a thin layer of linen cloth) to protect the wearer from getting burned. The outer layer will be a coating of cotton.

I'm aware this is in India, but this could work for a contestant there. I'm not a 100 pecent positive this works. IT's all hypothetical.

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MaxHubert

10/15/10 at 7:10 pm

why not just have them install some lights so they can work morning/night shift when its cooler outside?

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lnwolf41

10/16/10 at 7:10 am

lnwolf41

Asimple vest with small plastic tubing going to a ? gallon thermos with ice water. A small pump either run by a simple lever that moves as you walk or solar powered. Of course there would have to have ice availble to start with.

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Loomyer

10/16/10 at 7:07 pm

A large , but light weight, hat like a Chinese "coolie" hat or Mexican sombrero to provide shade , but with thin film photovoltaic cells on its top surface. This powers a fan under the hat which directs an airflow over the wearers face and upper body. The evaporation of sweat is the bodies own natural cooling method, increasing the airflow increases the cooling. Part of the airstream could also be piped under the users clothing by flexible tube(s).

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TheFourth

10/17/10 at 2:44 pm

Keep hydrated.

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vkranthi7

10/21/10 at 3:46 am

already developed

www. dhamainnovations. com

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