Washable smart clothing

At this point, we have many magazines that often feature design and fashion kingpins of the day. Talk of the all-time celebrated designs: Calvin Klein, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Donna Karen and many others. They have been on the field for decades now and offered the best. Do you perceive them as the modern wonders of the clothing and design world? Then you are wrong; I bet you have not yet come across the smart and washable clothes, they are arguably the current wonder in the designing realm. Though the eTextile(smart clothing) prototypes date back to the 80’s, many have the least knowledge of their existence probably because of the extended period before products emerged.

Do you imagine a kind of clothing that can monitor your physical condition? That sounds odd, isn’t it?

This is a kind of dress that when one, is capable of monitoring the wearer’s physical conditions.

They detect and encode biometric data such as body temperature, muscle contraction and expansion, heart pulse rate and physical movement. They then via Bluetooth transmit the data to an application in real time.

Smart clothes in the market

The heddoko garment

This is a body suit that tracks your movements and transmits the information to a mobile app in real time. Then the wearer is coached on which quick adjustments to make. It is designed for fitness and sports training.

Heddoko uses Bluetooth-enabled sensor technology to track and transmit data.

Heddoko is in the producer pre-order status, and the interested consumer can access them through their  website, heddoko.com

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Hexoskin smart shirts

Smart shirts from hexoskin track your body physical activity, the volume of breath, rate of breathing and heart rate. Hexoskin is also able to tell you how much sleep you are getting and show the intensity of your workouts. The preloaded Bluetooth capability compatible with a majority of operating systems makes it easy of use.

Made with Italian fabric, the smart shirts are washable by machine.

The shirts retail for around $170 to $ 580.

Athos live view

Smart body suits from Athos can detect and show the muscles getting the correct workout in real time. The smart suit is equipped with Core-a data collection part with sensor embedment throughout the shirt. The Core being wi-fi enabled, there is no wiring.

The suits use EMG sensor technology.

The bodysuits are available in manufacturer pre-order only.

Ralph Lauren Polo tech shirt

The highly valuable products from Ralph have now advanced to embrace the hi-tech world of smart clothing.

Using the biosensing silver fibres embedded in it, the Polo Tech shirt can store, manipulate and transmit it to an app on a smart device in real time.

Whenever you are in a workout, the shirt can track the number of calories you burn.

The product is on manufacturer pre-order only.

Interested? Visit their website. Ralphlauren.com.

D-shirts (digital shirts)

These shirts keep track of data such as temperature, heartbeat intensity of the workout.

Interested? Cityzen Sciences, the French company behind the product, do customization of the shirt to fit client specifications.

You can reach them through www.cityzensciences.com

Cancer detecting clothing

It is a technology that can detect the presence of cancer cells in the human body.

The company behind the product is under a patent deal that will in an early stage identify and let the patient know about the cancer status. The success of the product has an endless potential of decreasing the danger of the unknown growth of cancerous cells.

The consumer product is in the early stages, and interested individuals can be referred to the company website. www.cancerdetectingclothing.com

Monbaby smart baby monitor

These Las Vegas 2015 consumer electronics award winning product from MonDevices is a masterpiece. Design for newborns, the MonBaby sensor uses the smart sensor technology to track the body conditions of the baby like temperature and heartbeat. The devices also can monitor the baby’s sleeping patterns, positions and transmit the data the parents’ smartphone in real-time.

The smart cloth contains 4.0 capable Bluetooth with the 13-bit accelerometer. The product guarantees total baby security free from choking as it does not contain chords.

Some of the leading producer companies

iSotera

iSotera is a privately owned UK company founded in 2010. The company is very competitive in the smart cloth field.

Ambiotex GmbH

In existence since 2013, Ambiotex is a privately owned German company producing smart clothes.

Cityzen Sciences

Cityzen is an original cloth producer company based in France. The company was founded in 2008, and one of its most outstanding products is the “D-shirt” a name coined from Digital shirt.

Gymi

Gymi is a smart garment company native to Australia. It has a particular interest in producing workout and exercise garments for sporting.

Benefits of smart clothing

1. Durability: smart clothes are woven with the best fabric which means that they can withstand the rigorous body movements during training.
2. Secure: the garment is fitted with tested for hazard rays and confirmed safe human use.
3. Health Advisor: some smart clothes can detect cancerous cells from early stages hence patients can receive counter treatment.
4. The smart cloth wearables will help you in achieving your training goals.
5. With the stylish clothes, you can monitor your sleep and receive the appropriate advice regarding the correct sleep.
6. Smart clothes are compatible with most operating systems and devices hence cheap to install, configure and use.
7. The smart clothing enables patients to receive real-time information about their health conditions.
8. Diabetic patients can check their blood glucose levels and manage their eating habits as per prescription.

Smart washable clothes’ market perspective

According to the global smart clothing report, in recent years, the demand for proper diet and good health care increased rapidly. The need for in-built health care monitoring system smart clothing is like to grow over the years due to the quest for people to stay free of health complications.

According to Tractica, a market research firm, the shipments of smart clothing is projected to stand at 10.2 Million in 2020 from the 0.14 Million units in 2013.

This will represent a compound annual growth rate of 84%. Smart clothing has the highest preference with the highest growth rate among the wearable shipments yearly.

The target groups/ markets

Sports: It is the leading area of application for smart garments and sensor devices.

Consumer: Though much limited at the moment, use of smart clothes for general consumption is seeing some promising interests. With the heart strap leading, a growing usage of baby and pregnancy monitors, headbands and position monitors.

Industrial use: Smart clothing is used in controlling hazardous substances in industries.

Healthcare: Smart clothing is used in health care such as in checking blood sugar levels

Future trends in the smart clothing world

Sports applications, apparel market, and healthcare applications are forecasted to be at a high point in 2020. This is following the report by Tractica which shows that revenues will grow from $17.2 million to $ 603million.

The availability of Blue Low Energy (BLE) powered smartphones are expected to boost the usage of smart clothes.

The launch of ReseachKit and HealthKit platforms by the device production giant Apple shows a great future of the partnership of the smart world and the smartphones as a health hub.

Conclusion

The smart cloth technology has come at the correct moment in time, the daring emergence of diseases calls for hi-tech counter methods. Smart clothing is here for the purpose.

Therefore, healthcare units and organization should make efforts even if it means funding to ensure that the potential that smart wearable technology has shown to prevent and or heal diseases can be implemented.

Image credit: www.istockphoto.com