Smart Clothes – a wearable healthcare system?
February 29, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Gear, Health, Healthbolt Gear, Misc., Oddities, Prevention
Might sound a little sci-fi but its not. Soon there will be clothes available that not only will keep you covered and fashionable but also keep track of your health.
Smartex, an Italian company has been working on a project known as WEALTHY (a loose acronym for ‘wearable health care system’). Their aim is to create clever clothes that will be able to monitor your vital signs.
What they have come up with so far is a washable unitard, powered by a tiny embedded lithium battery, that can read a persons vital signs and send the information wirelessly to a computer. It’s able to provide “…information on posture and movement is measured by the stress on sensors built into the garment. Other components gauge electrical activity, yielding EKG data. Heat sensors measure temperature.” (Wired.com)
Imagine the implications. This clothing would be able to simultaneously record a number of physiological signals, allowing for greater treatment and protection of people with high risk health conditions, people in high risk environments, and elite athletes.
Sounds like a win-win proposition to me.
Very intriguing idea. I can see this being immediately adopted in nursing homes and recovery facilities where patients are ambulatory but whose condition still requires close monitoring.
I agree. The possibilities are endless really. Only problem I see at present in not everyone could get into or fit into a unitard. They will have to create more user friendly outfits for the elderly and sick that might need monitoring. Definitely something to keep an eye on though…