TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Imagine being cool all day, everyday, even in the hottest weather.
That's the vision of a professor of biological systems engineering at Florida A&M University, and he's making that vision a reality.
Dr. Charles Magee calls it a solar evaporative cooling vest, which he just recently got a patent for.
He hopes his invention can relieve heat induced discomfort for many people from many walks of life.
Dr. Magee says his invention is essentially like a fan, but instead of blowing hot or room temperature air on a person, his device lowers the temperature of the air that is blowing on you by 15 to 20 degrees before it actually hits your body.
The concept is based on Evaporative Cooling, which has been used in greenhouses for the past 60 years to lower the temperature, but it only works well in dry climates. He says what makes his system unique is that it's portable, it's solar, and you can operate it in either a high or low humidity environment.
He says people can benefit from the cooling vest, especially those who work long hours in the sun or heat, like landscapers.
"It has multiple applications, many uses. Folks who fight forest fires and even military applications, hikers," said Dr. Magee. "If you're fishing all day and you're sitting on the bank and you want to keep yourself cool it works well for that."
He says it can also help if there is a power outage from a storm, say at a nursing home, and the staff needs to keep the patients cool.
The vest does not have to be attached to the body. It's detachable and can be used in a car, house, business, where ever.
Dr. Magee's next step is to get prototypes made before the end of the summer and hopefully have it on the market in the next two years.
Dr. Magee started FAMU's Biological Systems Engineering Program 24 years ago and his patent for the solar evaporative cooling vest is the first ever patent awarded to the program.
