Why bother buying a watch or bracelet to track your daily activities and calories burned, when your shirt can do it for you? AiQ, a company based in Taiwan that develops smart clothing featuring embedded sensors, has come out with the BioMan shirt that is able to keep track of your body vitals. The BioMan is able to track heart rate, respiration rate and skin temperature. That information can then be sent to a smartphone or other device wirelessly via Bluetooth. Embedded steel threads within the shirt provide the electrical conductivity that allows for vitals sensing. The material can be further customized to potentially measure skin moisture and electrophysiological signals such as EKG, electroencephalography (EEG), or electromyography (EMG). The Bioman shirt is different from other wearable monitors as the sensors are integrated into the garment so that the wearer doesn’t have to worry about misplacing or forgetting to wear them. This technology has great potential for not only routine tracking of body vitals, but also to alert care centers in the event of unusual cardiovascular activity.
In addition to BioMan, AiQ offers other smart clothing textiles as well. Its NeonMan clothing line integrates patented LED wire and LED buttons powered by a small removable/rechargeable battery to enhance the safety of night time activities. Its ShieldMan fabric, a wearable Faraday cage, uses a textile consisting of a fine metal mesh distributed evenly inside casual clothing that shields the wearer from electromagnetic radiation. And finally, the ThermoMan fabric line keeps the wearer warm without the use of large heating panels or pads that weigh the wearer down while performing outdoor tasks. The ThermoMan fabric uses uniquely coated stainless steel yarn to ensure the wearer’s safety and to maintain fabric softness.
Link: AiQ Smart Clothing…
