| Smart Shirts A number of commercial
companies are providing health monitoring shirts:
Textronics
www.textronicsinc.com/
www.numetrex.com/
Delaware-based Textronics developed the NuMetrex
heart-rate sensing sports bra in conjunction with Polar. The company was
purchased by Adidas in 2008. Whilst predominantly aimed at the sports
market, health care is an important aspect of hte developments at
Textronics.
Special sensors are knit into the fabric of the
seamless athletic apparel. The textile sensors maintain contact with the
body, sensing the wearer’s heart rate and relaying it to a tiny
transmitter.
The transmitter is snapped into a pocket in the
front of the garment. It captures the heart rate data and transmits it
to a heart rate monitor watch. The system is compatible with Polar
receivers and transmitters.
The heart rate monitor watch displays the heart
rate for the wearer to see.
Adidas Polar Fusion
Polar Electro and adidas, one of
the world’s leading sports brands, formed a partnership to introduce the
world’s first completely integrated training system. Called “Project
Fusion”, it integrated Polar heart rate and speed and distance
monitoring equipment into adidas apparel and footwear. The system
integrates the adidas adiStar Fusion range of apparel (t-shirts, long
sleeve shirts, bras, women’s tops), the adidas adiStar Fusion shoe,
Polar’s s3 Stride Sensor, The Polar WearLink transmitter and The Polar
RS800 Running Computer into one complete system that simplifies use and
increases comfort for the athlete.
www.nike.com
The sports monitoring solution includes a wireless
transmission band and associated watch. It provides:
·
ECG-accurate for precise heart-rate data
·
Calorie counter records calories burned during workout
·
Displays heart rate in beats per minute or as a percentage
of maximum heart rate
·
Programmable target heart-zone function alerts you when
out of optimal zone
·
Data mode recalls exercise time, time in target zone and
calories for last workout
·
Other functions include: time, date, two time zones and
alarm
VivoMetrics
www.vivometrics.com
California-based VivoMetrics developed the
Lifeshirt which monitors a number of vital signs.
Lifeshirt® collects patient data using integrated
sensors including respiratory bands (which measure pulmonary function)
and an ECG (which record electrical activity of the heart). It also
tracks and records posture and physical activity. Optional peripheral
devices can monitor EEG, skin temperature, blood oxygen saturation,
blood pressure and galvanic skin response.
www.sensatex.com
Sensatex, Inc. is a life science technology company
focused on the development of Smart Textile Systems. The first product,
the Sensatex SmartShirt is a patented wearable Smart Textile unisex
T-shirt designed to acquire physiological information and movement data
from the human body.
Originally developed and patented by researchers at
the Georgia Institute of Technology and funded by DARPA, the primary
research and development arm of the Department of Defense, the
SmartShirt is made using any type of fiber. It is woven or knitted
incorporating a patented conductive fiber/sensor system designed
specifically for the intended biometric information requirements. Heart
rate, respiration, and body temperature are all calibrated and relayed
in real time for analysis.
The SmartShirt System is a unisex wearable wireless
T-shirt designed to collect physiological signals and movement from the
human body. The System collects analog signals through conductive fiber
sensors and passes them through a conductive fiber grid knitted in the
T-Shirt. A textile connector passes the analog signals to a small
personal controller held in a pocket on the shirt. The personal
controller digitizes the signal and transmits the signal to a Bluetooth
or Zigbee receiver connected to a base station where the information is
collected, displayed and/or stored.
www.smartlifetech.com
SmartLife Technology Limited, a UK based company
founded in 2003, has designed and developed a garment based system with
integrated sensors for sport, personal health and well-being monitoring.
SmartLife® Technology, drawn from
leading research and development in electronics, materials science and
textiles at the University of Manchester, has created a garment system
for monitoring human physiological signs.
Aimed at healthcare, sports and
dangerous environments the e-textile technologies allow a seamless,
totally none intrusive and obtrusive integration of sensor technology
into garments and with that, the sensors are placed directly on the skin
without any limitation on comfort for the wearer.
Their garment system contains
discrete electrical, electronic and knitted components, engineered to
create a system-wide functionality for sensing human physiological signs
based on a dry interface – with no reliance upon gel-based facilitation.
SmartLife’s technology enables
garments to record full ‘clinical standard’ ECG in addition to heart
rate, respiration rate, temperature and dry sensing. A garment fitted
with those sensors remains fully washable. Data collected by the
SmartLife HealthVest™ can be transmitted in real time via Bluetooth to a
remote computer, PDA, or even a cell phone.
-
Consists of one piece garment
-
Front panel – created with
integrally knitted ECG electrodes, respiratory sensor (s) and
conductive pathways
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Knitted panels created with:
-
Doubled covered elastomeric
yarn for the base structure
-
Silver coated PE yarn for
the sensors and conductive pathways
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