From Championchip to myTemp

Clemens Neervoort is one of the main team members of the Purplexus team; inventor and patentholder of the Purplexus technology and leading the company in product innovation, development and improvement. Time for a small introduction of this co-owner of Purplexus.

Clemens started his career at Philips NXP and then moved to Radboud to support PhD students writing their research software. After 20 years of working in a company an opportunity to start his own company came along.

In 1993 Clemens was part of the new company Championchip. This company created a revolution in running and sports events by inventing a small RFID responder that enabled exact timing of the participants from the start to the finish. In 2008 Championchip was sold to AMB and became MyLaps.

In 2013 Clemens was approached by Prof. Dr. Maria Hopman who was in charge of advising the 4-day marches in Nijmegen regarding thermoregulation and overheating of the participants. In 2006 participants died or were severally ill caused by overheating of their body. In the following years she conducted research to the causes of overheating and advised the organization of the 4-day marches regarding the safety of the participants.

One of her wishes was to gain more insight into the core temperature of the participants. She was already using a swallowable sensor that was able to measure core temperature at the start and the finish. Her wish was a sensor that mapped core temperature during the entire walk. Clemens accepted the challenge and started the development of a swallowable capsule that measured accurately and continuously core temperature. Some of the technology is based on the former Championchip technology. For instance the myTemp capsule is also passive; meaning is does not carry a power source inside. However, the myTemp capsule has a more complicated hardware and software part.

In 2014 the company myTemp was founded which continued the development en marketing of this capsule. In 2022 myTemp became a part of Purplexus. Clemens is in charge of the development of the software of the sensorplatform of myTemp capsule but the same platform is also used in industrial applications.