Skip to main content

Cityzen smart shirt tracks your health, recharges during washing

By
Rightly or wrongly, the French are known for clothing designs that are often less than practical. Now, however, French company Cityzen Sciences has won the CES 2014 Inclusive Innovation in Everyday Health award for its development of a Smart Sensing fabric woven with integral micro-sensors – these add the practical benefit of monitoring the health and fatigue levels of the wearer.
The Smart Sensing fabric reads body heat, respiration rate, heart rate, and motion through location via GPS. "The fabric can be made into any clothing; gloves, shirts, pants, you name it," said Gilbert Reveillon, Cityzen's international managing director.
The new smart fabric combines sensors, fabric, distributed computation, and a small battery-powered transmitter into a unit that links in real time to a smartphone. The phone runs an app that stores and analyzes data from the fabric, showing if the person wearing the garment is tired, stressed, or in the path of an imminent heart attack. Obvious applications are for people who find themselves in extreme conditions, such as athletes, first responders, and soldiers.
Smart Sensing fabric, which costs perhaps 30 to 40 percent more than ordinary material, can be safely laundered and ironed. Additional sensors can be added to the fabric, as compatible versions are developed. Such information as blood oxygen, tidal volume (the amount of air flowing in and out of the lungs when breathing normally), and perhaps eventually blood glucose levels could make such fabrics vital systems in monitoring people's day-to-day health.
Perhaps the cleverest part of Smart Sensing fabric is still under development. Cityzen is working on a recharging system for the fabric, that receives most of its energy when the clothing is washed. This is a perfect use for a motion-driven recharging system – can you think of a better environment for collecting mechanical energy than a washing machine?
Smart Sensing fabric is expected to reach the commercial market later this year. More information is available in the video below.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AQUA TEK S – the first waterproof, ruggedized, solar-powered battery case for iPhone

By
If you're hoping to attract investors to get yet another iPhone case to an already crowded market, it had better do more than just protect a phone from bumps and scrapes. Snow Lizard Products is giving itself the best possible chance of raising funds for its new AQUA TEK S case for  iPhone 4  and  4S  with an offering that not only boasts ruggedized protection, but also includes a solar panel, built in battery, and is waterproof up to 20 ft (6 m). Aimed at outdoorsy types who want to stay connected when heading off the beaten track, the case features a waterproof and dirt resistant poly-carbonate ruggedized casing that packs its own built-in battery to extend the life of the the iPhone. The company is still investigating the best battery to fit the form factor so the capacity of the unit hasn't yet been finalized, but it will be able to recharge from the power of the Sun via the solar panel built into the rear of the case. The encased iPhone can also be recharg...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nanogenerator that harnesses energy from tires friction

By
Engineers from the  University of Wisconsin-Madison  along with a collaborator from China have created a new nanogenerator that harnesses energy from the friction caused by rolling tires. Xudong Wang has developed a new way to harvest energy from rolling tires (Credit: The College of Engineering) As a novel energy reusing method, the nanogenerator could be potentially used by auto-mobile manufacturers to improve the efficiency of their vehicles. The first of its kind, nanogenerator was published in the Nano Energy journal. The research was carried out by Xudong Wang, the Harvey D. Spangler fellow and an associate professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison, and his PhD student Yanchao Mao for about one year. Based on the triboelectric effect, the nanogenerator can harness energy resulting from the electric potential created between a vehicle's wheels and the pavement. The triboelectric effect is the electric charge generated due to the rubbing...
Post a Comment
Read more

New record energy efficiency for artificial photosynthesis

By
As the world moves towards developing new avenues of renewable energy, the efficiencies of producing fuels such as hydrogen must increase to the point that they rival or exceed those of conventional energy sources to make them a viable alternative. Now researchers at Monash University in Melbourne claim to have created a solar-powered device that produces hydrogen at a world-record 22 percent efficiency, which is a significant step towards making cheap, efficient hydrogen production a reality. Efficiency records for solar-powered hydrogen production have continued to rise over the years, and much more rapidly as the technology and techniques improve. Even as late as December last year  Gizmag reported  a solar-driven hydrogen record efficiency at the time of just 12.3 percent, so this new record shows a very healthy 10 percent improvement on that and beats out the previous record of 18 percent. Splitting water using electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen has been a...
Post a Comment
Read more