Smart shirts
The most exciting about your t-shirt is the witty slogan on it, right? Who can stop the hilarity when faced with someones chest proclaiming, Beards: they grow on you or T-Rex hates push-ups? Don’t the cold winter evenings just fly with a good t-shirt slogan to provoke thought! It would seem then that the t-shirt hardly needs to do anything further to justify its existence but like any avatar, the t-shirt does not rest on its laurels. It appears t-shirts might be an invaluable part of your medical future.
Researchers from the Carlos III University, Madrid have developed an intelligent t-shirt that will monitor a patients health in hospital as well as being able to locate them and describe what they are doing.
The t-shirt is washable and is made from e-textiles that can send information without using wires to an information management system. The fabric contains electrodes that detect bioelectric energy and can therefore take an ECG (electrocardiogram). There is also a thermometer to take the patients temperature and an accelerometer which measures the patients relative position such as standing, sitting, or lying. Additionally there is a localisation unit that can be built into the fabric. This unit sends messages periodically to fixed infrastructure within the hospital and wirelessly sends that information to the central management system which can then pin-point exactly where the patient is.
The intelligent t-shirt would thus allow a patients vital signs to be monitored in real time. The t-shirt also has a number of alarms built in which are activated when pre-set limits are exceeded: such as when temperature goes above 38 degrees Celsius or heart rate goes above 100. The alarms can be modified to suit individual needs.
Outside of the hospital, e-tees might be used to monitor athletes or patients in their own homes. It’s a brave new fashion world out there.
One imagines that the next step along the e-clothing pathway will be intelligent underwear. While that might seem to be an oxymoron, it could also be the thin end of a fairly disturbing wedge.
There are websites online that you can purchase tshirts from with various designs which include teespring, baetees, zazzle etc etc.
