A passive, device-free colorimetric indicator built into the dressing that responds to the actual biochemistry of a wound — reading the pH shift that accompanies infection, and showing it as a colour, visible without disturbing the wound bed.
Acidic wound environment. Leave the dressing undisturbed.
pH rising. Bioburden increasing. Inspect at next round.
Alkaline shift consistent with infection. Clinical attention.
No electronics · No reader · No dressing removal · colour response pending laboratory validation
Infection is assessed by removing the dressing and looking — on a schedule, not when the wound actually needs it. Every unnecessary removal disrupts healing; every delayed one lets infection advance unseen. The dressing tells you nothing between changes.
Each dressing change cools the wound bed, strips the moist healing environment, and can tear new tissue. Best practice is to disturb a wound as little as possible — yet assessment requires disturbing it.
Between scheduled changes, a wound can shift from healing to infected with no outward signal until the next removal — by which point bioburden, odour, and tissue damage have advanced.
Wound pH shifts measurably as a wound moves from healing toward infection — the environment turns from acidic toward alkaline. That chemistry is happening under the dressing, unread.
In veterinary care the gap is wider still: the patient cannot report pain, and post-surgical or field wounds are frequently hidden under coats, casts, and bandages until a problem is advanced.
A healing wound holds an acidic environment. As bioburden rises and infection takes hold, the wound surface shifts toward alkaline — a pH change repeatedly documented in wound-healing literature. Wound Window reads that shift through pH-sensitive dyes characterised for over fifty years, held in the dressing and read as a colour.
Thresholds 7.2 and 7.8 are the clinical pH thresholds of the filed specification (AU 2026903740). The dye colour response across them is to be confirmed by laboratory validation.
The indicator uses the bromothymol blue / phenol red dual-dye system — the same chemistry as the Freshness Window food platform, recalibrated from food-spoilage thresholds to the higher pH window that signals wound infection. One dye system, two calibrations, two markets.
The dye layer is held within the dressing structure to sense the wound environment without the dye migrating into the wound bed — read through the dressing, never released into the tissue.
BTB and phenol red are established pH indicators with well-characterised profiles in cell culture, microbiology, and clinical use. The innovation is the configuration and calibration to wound pH — not the dyes themselves.
The colour is designed to be visible at the dressing surface, so a carer or clinician can read status without removing the dressing and disturbing the wound — the core clinical advantage.
A colorimetric veterinary wound dressing reaches real animals — and real revenue and evidence — through a far lighter regulatory path than a human medical device. Vet wound care is a large, underserved market where the patient genuinely cannot report pain. It is the fastest, lowest-cost route to a working product in use, and the real-world evidence it generates is exactly what de-risks the later human pathway.
Smart-dressing research exists, but the deployed reality is still visual inspection or electronic sensors. Neither does what a passive colour-shift dressing does.
| Criterion | Visual inspection | Electronic smart dressings | Wound Window™ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reads actual wound chemistry | ✗ Surface look only | ✓ Sensor | ✓ Direct pH chemistry |
| Requires removing the dressing | ✗ Yes — disturbs wound | Varies | ✓ No |
| Electronics / battery | ✓ None | ✗ Required | ✓ None |
| Cost at scale | Low | ✗ High | ✓ Printed dye layer |
| Readable by non-specialist / carer | Needs training | ✗ Needs device | ✓ Colour legend |
All performance specifications are materials-science predictions based on published dye chemistry and peer-reviewed wound-healing literature. Independent laboratory validation is the next required step — and it is shared with the Freshness Window food platform.
Covering the dual-dye colorimetric system applied to wound dressings, calibrated to the pH shift associated with wound infection, with a three-zone status legend read at the dressing without removal. Part of the unified colorimetric platform linking wound and food indicator applications.
Wound Window is at validation stage. The IP is filed, the science is grounded, the veterinary path is the clear entry point. What's needed now is a partner to co-fund the validation that opens both the veterinary and human conversations.
Co-fund the wound validation in exchange for an equity or licensing position. Small, defined ask; the shared dye foundation means the core chemistry is already proven once for the platform.
A veterinary wound-care company or distributor to co-develop the first product in use and run the real-world evidence that funds the human pathway.
Integration partnership for an existing dressing manufacturer seeking a passive condition-reading differentiator — printable into existing dressing formats.
Full transfer of the wound indicator IP, optionally bundled with the Freshness Window platform for a single owner of the complete dual-dye colorimetric position.
No intermediaries. Direct conversation with the inventor. Initial discussions by Zoom — available anywhere, anytime. No pitch deck required on your end — just curiosity.