HeartIn, a company with offices in Silicon Valley and Kyiv, Ukraine, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help bring to market a t-shirt with built-in electrocardiography (ECG) capabilities. The technology is aimed at helping athletes optimize their workout routines by having a better idea of how the heart is doing during various exercise regimens.
The HeartIn t-shirt has a set of metal snaps to which the electronic unit is attached to. The snaps lead to electrodes within the shirt that are positioned near the heart and touching the skin to obtain readings as best as possible. When activated, the electronic device, which is about the size of a USB memory stick, then communicates with a paired smartphone app that records and displays the readings.
The app shows insights via charts of the heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), and provides real-time guidance on how to stay within one’s target ranges. A number of vaguer parameters, such as “Physiological Stress Management” and “Training Intensity” are also available, but you’ll have to discover what those mean for you on your own.