E-skin smart shirt monitors fitness and health

SPH Brightcove Video
A motion and gesture-tracking smart shirt has stretchable wires and sensors integrated onto traditional textiles, providing a platform for fitness and health monitoring.

BERLIN, GERMANY (REUTERS) - E-skin is a motion and health tracking wearable tech with the wires and sensors integrated onto traditional textiles.

The creators, Xenoma, a spin-off from the University of Tokyo, say they were the first to develop the Printed Circuit Fabric - or PCF - technology.

They say PCF makes it robust enough for sports, as well as gaming and daily health monitoring.

"We are monitoring the deformation of the shirt caused by body motion. And in here all the sensors' data is transferred in here. In here we have a battery, micro-computer, motion sensor and Bluetooth. And the data is sent via Bluetooth to the PC and smart phone, and then we can know everything, anywhere, anyplace," co-founder and CEO of Xenoma, Ichiro Amimori said.

Smart clothing has been worked on by a number of companies, including luxury brand Ralph Lauren with its Polo Smartshirt.

E-skin, however, packs in a lot more than regular sports wearables.

The PCF technology integrates sensors to monitor temperature, the amount of oxygen in the blood, among other things.

Xenoma is now working on a similar outfit to monitor the health of infants.

"So now we're having a project for monitoring babies. We'll be monitoring the body temperature, motion and blood pulse. So parents can monitor everywhere, anytime with just having a smart phone," Amimori said.

The e-skin for babies will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) in Las Vegas next January.

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