‘Intelligent’ t-shirt monitors cardiac health
1 min read
An 'intelligent' training shirt, capable of measuring a person's breathing, pulse and changes in heart rate, has been developed by researchers in Germany.
The prototype FitnessSHIRT is expected to have applications in the sports industry, and could also be used to help rehabilitate patients after injury and prevent them from overexertion.
Conductive textile electrodes integrated into the shirt's material capture the wearer's cardio activity, while an elastic band around the upper body senses the motion of the chest during breathing.
A removable electronic unit digitises the raw data and calculates additional parameters such as pulse and breath rate via specially developed algorithms.
The data is then transmitted via radio link to a smartphone or pc, so that doctors can monitor vital functions such as stress, performance, exertion and relaxation.
Christian Hofmann, from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, claims the shirt offers numerous advantages over conventional chest straps.
"For one thing, the shirt is more comfortable to wear," he noted. "For another, the integrated sensors deliver more detailed information. Besides pulse and respiration, accelerometers sense the movement of the user and carry out an analysis. If the pulse rate is high, for example, while the breath rate and the exercise activity is low, it could be a sign of possible heart problems."
In the future, the researchers envisage the shirt being used to monitor the heart for things like arrhythmia, and even for long term ECGs.
