France, the homeland of haute couture, has yet one more reason to be proud of its creative minds, who have developed a fabric embedded with health tracking sensors.
Smart clothes are definitely not something new, as we’ve seen smart socks and even mood sweaters that give an visual interpretation of your feelings. Still, Cityzen’s approach is truly innovative, as it packs sensors within the fabric. With the help of these sensors, such aspects as body heat, heart rate, motion and location can be easily monitored. Initially presented at CES, last month, the Smart Sensing fabric brought Cityzen the Inclusive Innovation in Everyday Health award, a sign that cutting edge technology gets its deserved recognition.
Since there is no way such a shirt could pack a display (regardless of how advanced it is), all the data collected by the sensors is transmitted to a smartphone via Bluetooth, as seen in the above image.
Gilbert Reveillon, Cityzen’s international managing director, pointed out that the Smart Sensing textile could have many applications: “The fabric can be made into any clothing: gloves, shirts, pants, you name it. It is the first time ever that we managed to mix these two industries, embedding sensors into textile.”
According to Reveillon, the Cityzen smart shirt could revolutionize detection of serious health problems: “You can’t prevent a heart attack from happening, but you could definitely detect it hours, or even days, ahead of it taking place.”
Moreover, the smart fabric could also be used for athletic apparel and sports clothing, as Reveillon explains “On the field, a coach could tell when a member of the team has been running over capacity and put in a fresh player.” To accomplish this, Cityzen Sciences worked together with major French sports teams, in conjunction with members of the health industry.
Reveillon also revealed that while at CES, one of his company’s employees went for an hour-long walk on the Las Vegas strip wearing a t-shirt made from the smart fabric. The vital signs were displayed all the time on a smartphone screen and “The Las Vegas street definitely increases the heartbeat. The vibes are very positive.”
While the fabric can be ironed and washed without any problems, charging it simply by washing is a work in progress, but Reveillon promised that “In two years’ time, by washing it, you will recharge the batteries.” Now that’s a feature I’d like to see in person!
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