A comparative study of wearable ultraviolet radiometers

In this paper we describe the motivation, challenges, and design methods of miniaturizing UV Index radiometry into a wearable form factor. The UV Index is the standard metric to measure instantaneous UV exposure in a way that is relevant to the human skin. However, unlike FDA regulated sensors like the glucose sensor, there is a currently an absence of specifications for the performance of wearable UV Index radiometers. In this paper, we develop performance metrics based on accuracy and sensitivity, and further evaluate the performance of several commercially available UV Index wearable radiometers on the basis of these metrics. Comparisons to laboratory-grade equipment show that the Shade radiometer is the most accurate and the most sensitive commercially available wearable UV radiometer. Ethics statement: This paper does not describe research involving human or animal subjects and is therefore not subject to review by IRB or IACUC.