In this work we discuss personal protective equipment, which has its primary functions and is in addition exploiting the information technology, to monitor the environmental factors and user’s vital functions by embedded sensors. Such personal protective equipment can also transmit localization signals, which aids the monitoring of its use – it is possible to control the proper use of personal protective equipment and keep the in-time track of the user’s location, when he is in the dangerous environment. The sensors communicate with each other and other devices via various Internet connections (Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G), or bluetooth, RFID or NFC connection. Such personal protective equipment is able to warn and inform the user on potential hazards. The collected data can be stored in databases or in the »cloud«, where it is available ready for further processing and analysis. We also present some examples of using smart personal protective equipment.
At the beginning of this thesis, we hypothesized that such personal protective equipment could reduce the number of workplace injuries and would in the future replace basic personal protective equipment. After reviewing the literature, we confirmed the hypothesis and presented some positive and negative aspects of its use.
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