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Sports and Training
Sports is area of
important smart clothing developments
In general a number of important functions can be
implemented using smart devices or clothing. These include:
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Monitoring
heart rate, breathing, body temperature and other
physiological parameters
- Measuring activity, for example determining the
number of steps taken, the total distance travelled
- Acting to actively stimulate muscles e.g. using
electrical muscle stimulation
- Work against activity to provide 'smart' resistance
training
- Record aspects of performance, such a foot pressure
or specific joint movements
- Protect against injury e.g. fall
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| Tunics, Sports bras and Bands for heart rate monitoring
In order to record the electrical activity of
the heart, or measure breathing or body temperature, sensors
need to be placed on the body surface itself. Therefore there is
a need for easy to wear, comfortable, shirt mounted sensor
systems, which users can regularly wear and record information
useful for their fitness regime.
A number of companies produce systems for recording vital
signs information for sports, including Adidas, Numetrex,
Zephyr, Polar.
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Adidas Sports
Tunic |
Zephyr
Bioharness |
Heart rate bands and sports bras from Numetrex and Polar |
| Smart Footwear for Sports and Sports Training
Shoes with fitted accelerometers to act as
pedometers or measurements of total distance travelled, total
calories consumed, communicating with heart rate watches, are
already on the market (e.g. from Adidas and Polar). In addition
GPS devices in shoes and shoes with an ability to measure foot
pressure and distribution, or even to modify their running
characteristics according to the type of activity (running,
walking) or speed have been developed.
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Adidas 1 active shoe
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Zephyr |
| Watches and strap on devices
Heart rate sensors can be
integrated into watches. In addition they can contain
accelerometers for determining movements, in turn the distance
and number of steps can be estimated from the movements. Watches
can contain batteries, processors and displays. A number of
chest monitoring bands are integrated using wireless with
watches which in turn display the information to their wearer.
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BodyMedia armband
system – 5 variables of physical activity |
Heart rate monitor watch from Polar |
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