CoolCop Beats the Heat

June 18, 2007 — -- It's not Robocop. It's cooler.

A California sergeant-by-day, inventor-by-night has revolutionized the way that cops keep cool as summer temperatures soar.

And police aren't the only ones feeling the burn of the rising mercury. U.S. military experts reported 3,000 cases of heat exhaustion in the past two years.

So, while the Iraq government might get a break from the heat next month, some U.S. soldiers, who have little respite from the scorching temperatures, will be using similar microclimate cooling vests and even a glove to fight the desertlike conditions.

Although modern equipment cools soldiers only when they are hooked up to their tanks and planes, the future generation of military technology will take the heat off individual soldiers on foot patrol, and even U.S. civilians working outdoors.

And since alertness and physical strength decrease with rising body temperatures, some physiologists said that this cooling equipment could save lives.

The Heat Beat

Sgt. Ron Baldal's CoolCop device might just be the next big thing for police since Dunkin' Donuts. It looks like a vacuum cleaner hose that attaches to the air conditioning vent on one end, and blows cool air directly between the officer's shirt and bulletproof vest on the other end.

After more than 20 years on the job, CoolCop inventor Baldal said he knows firsthand how things can heat up when wearing a wool uniform, bulletproof vest and 25 pounds of equipment on your back.

"Working in full uniform feels like you've wrapped plastic around your chest area and have to run in 100 degree heat and 90 percent humidity," he said.

Even when cops get back into their air-conditioned cars, they still can't escape the steamy weather, because the cooled air doesn't get behind their body armor.

But the flexible CoolCop hose does. The CoolCop contraption comes complete with a dashboard attachment, a 6-foot long flex hose and soft vinyl vest attachment.

And no one can sell it better than the people who actually use it.

Ryan Martin, a reservist-in-training, swears by CoolCop and has begun spreading the word to other officers throughout Idaho. "It's worth the $60, and I'm excited to see how it's going to work in winter when it becomes harder to warm up," he said.

Since selling several thousand CoolCops to police officers and employing more than 50 dealers nationwide, the CoolCop founder has also created a similar device for police dogs called CoolK9, which passes some of the car's air conditioning through a hose directly into the K9 kennel in the back seat.

Battling a Weathered Enemy

In blazing fields of combat, experts said the military faces the similar challenge of arming its members and keeping them cool at the same time.

"While heat historically has been a problem of war, soldiers used to be able to choose to fight only in good weather," said Dakota Wood, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Now, he told ABC News, the armed forces don't have the luxury to choose and must fight despite the heat.

Wood noted that while the military has to boost force protection, which calls for heavier and hotter equipment, it also has to increase troop mobility and make the troops accessible to the foreign community.

"That is why practical and effective cooling systems are so important to our war efforts," he said.

With all the add-on armor kits and doors and windows closed, temperatures inside Humvees can reach a sweltering 150 degrees, said military experts.

So, between 2000 and 2003, The Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC, and the Natick Soldier Center created the Air Warrior Microclimatic Cooling Garment, which has been tested by Humvee crews and about 900 aircraft pilots in Iraq and Kuwait.

The vest fits under a soldier's body armor and is connected via a hose to the vehicle's air-conditioning system. Fungicide-treated liquid from the air-conditioning system circulates into the vest, keeping soldiers cool.

The current challenge facing military engineers is to create cooling equipment for dismounted soldiers who move around and can't be hooked up to a power source like the Humvee or helicopter's air-conditioning system.

"To effectively access intelligence in a local area, establish a connection with people and get out on foot patrols, you just can't afford to drag an AC unit around with you," said Wood.

"Since the best way to release heat is by cooling the skin, which reduces blood flow that can strain the heart," said physiologist Mike Sawka of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, biologists and engineers are looking at ways to optimize heat removal across the skin and minimize energy requirements.

One of the much anticipated features of the fully integrated, Future Force Warrior system, tailored to the individual soldier, is the Micro-climate Conditioning Subsystem, said Brad Laprise, a mechanical engineer for U.S. Army Natick Research Development and Engineering Center. It has a network of narrow tubing built into the material of the vest that will provide 100 watts of heating or cooling to the wearer, said military experts.

Currently, engineers are working on a design that separates the uniform layer and body armor, to allow ambient air to flow through to enhance water evaporation and cool the skin, he said.

While it provides less cooling, military engineers said the vest is lighter weight, more mobile and requires less power.

Cold Hands, Cool Heart

One group of scientists believes they hold the cooling solution in the palm of their hands.

Stanford biologists, H. Craig Heller and Dennis Grahn, developed the Glove in the late 1990s after an anesthesiologist asked them to find a quick way to rewarm patients after surgery. Now priced at about $2,000 a Glove, the coffeepot look-alike draws heat away from the palm in a vacuum chamber and sends cooler blood back into the body.

The contraption is based on the scientists' idea that the human palm acts as a radiator and dispenses heat. By placing the palm on a battery-operated device, the blood in the palm cools and travels back to the heart to be pumped out to the rest of the body, "cooling from the inside out to actually enhance performance," Heller said.

Despite the drone of skepticism among some military experts, a contributing editor to Wired magazine and Danger Room blogger, Noah Shackman, became a believer after testing out the device at Stanford.

"They put me in hot room, where I ran uphill on a treadmill, and just as I felt like I was about to pass out, they put my hand in the Glove, and I felt fine within minutes," he said.

Some Glove supporters claimed that the device works in reverse as well.

"I agreed to strip down and sit in a 150-gallon tub of iced water. Because I was wearing the Glove, I was able to stay in there for 75 minutes," Shackman said.

The Glove creators said that most of their products are being used by athletes, including the San Francisco 49ers, as well as patients with multiple sclerosis, who they said are particularly sensitive to temperature changes.

Some Gloves have already been sent to Iraq, and Heller said they just built the prototype for a wearable, fingerless glove designed by an Army major that connects to a fanny pack and can be worn continually.

Scientists and military engineers alike said they are working to improve the performance and resilience of a troop of American soldiers who not only stay cool, but can run harder and longer, shake off injuries and operate on less sleep -- coming one step closer to producing real-life Robocops.