Ways That Smart Clothing Make Everyday Life Easier

Ways That Smart Clothing Make Everyday Life Easier

Although smart clothing hasn’t fully taken off in consumers’ collective consciousness since its launch in 2015, more companies are paving the way for the e-textiles revolution with innovative smart clothing designs. Whether you’re in need of workout clothes that will track your vitals, wearables that will keep your baby safe or even smartphone integrated business attire, the following smart clothing will change the way you pick your outfit each morning.

Staying Fit with Smart Clothing

If you’re an exercise enthusiast then you’re in luck. The majority of the smart clothing on the market right now is aimed at helping athletes stay in shape. The Hexoskin smart shirt, for example, is laced with sensors that monitor your heart rate, breathing and movements. All this information is synced back to your phone via Bluetooth to help you understand your workout routine, calories burned and even sleep quality.

Athos training clothes come with woven micro-EMG sensors to detect specific muscle activity, heart rate and breathing, all with the purpose of helping you avoid injury while at the gym. If you’re a girl and are looking for something more comfortable, there are a range of workout bras that perform similar functions. The SUPA sports bra will even keep track of UV levels, too.

Socks Are for More Than Keeping Your Toes Warm

Some people can never have enough socks. Even if you’re not a sock collector yourself, the following socks are a few you should definitely have in your wardrobe. 

Sensoria Fitness Socks do a great job of tracking precise data about the way you run. Its advanced textile sensors can record your steps, speed, distance traveled, altitude and even how your foot lands while walking or running. If you love running, these socks are for you.

Smart clothing isn’t just for athletes, though. Siren Socks are made with safety in mind. Designed to help prevent diabetic foot injuries, Siren Socks uses microsensors woven into the socks’ fabric to detect changes in temperature, a sign that inflammation is occurring. Since some people with diabetes can suffer from numbness in their legs, they may not notice this inflammation themselves and are at danger of developing foot ulcers. Siren Socks will alert users of possible inflammation through a smartphone notification or text message.

The Future of Baby Safety

With Sudden Infant Death Syndrome still claiming the life of 2,500 babies each year, it’s no surprise that some manufacturers of smart clothing are focusing on utilizing this tech to keep babies safe while they sleep. Whether you choose the Owlet smart baby sock or the Neopenda smart baby hat, you’ll be able to sleep soundly knowing your baby is being cared for overnight. These smart baby accessories monitor your baby’s vital signs such as breathing, heart rate and even oxygen saturation. If any of these drops to dangerous levels, you’ll be immediately notified on your smartphone. The Owlet Baby Sock 2 even integrates algorithms that can help identify chronic sleep irregularities and health problems like pneumonia, chronic lung disorders, bronchitis and heart defects.

Making Business Seamless

Samsung has been really focusing on their line of smart clothing under their wearables brand The Human Fit. In collaboration with Rogatis, they’ve even developed an NFC smart suit. Their business attire allows users to interact with their gadgets and smartphones through specific motions. If you live in Korea and decide to drop $500 for one, you’ll be able to unlock your phone without entering a password, set your gadgets to office or driving modes and even swap business cards digitally.

Everyday Integration

Google’s Project Jacquard has partnered with Levi to design a piece of wearable tech that will make day-to-day activities easier to manage. The Commuter Trucker Jacket includes touch and gesture sensitive areas in the sleeves that allow wearers to control and interact with many of their phone’s services, all without having to touch their device. Just swipe to dismiss or answer calls, or double tap to get directions through your maps app. 

As more functional smart clothes like this are developed, fashion and function will become integrated, attracting more consumer attention and making our lives much easier.

The Role of Wearables in the Workplace

The Role of Wearables in the Workplace

Just as smartphone usage has evolved from phone calls and emails to being an essential part of an employee’s work life, wearables such as smartwatches are also continuing to enable employees to be more productive, efficient and safe. Wearables are projected to be a $60 billion part of our workforce by 2022, and usage is steadily increasing as devices grow their capabilities and employees are more comfortable using the technology.

In the sci-fi world of the future, employees are often replaced by robots and made obsolete in various scary scenarios. In reality, wearables can actually make employees more indispensable. In fields such as construction and manufacturing, wearables can enhance employees abilities as well as keep them safe. As the workforce ages and jobs become increasingly complex, wearables can amplify hearing, sight and strength and sound alarms if anything is amiss. Headsets, augmented reality (AR) and exoskeletons mean humans can basically have superpowered senses while working.

Another safety and productivity benefit is being able to track and work with employees at any time. Through wearable tech, employee locations can be easily pinpointed in the event of a disaster or other unexpected event. Sales calls and time can be logged and monitored. Research shows a 10% increase in workplace productivity when wearables are implemented. Studies also show that goals are much more readily reached both when written down and when shared, creating accountability and community.

Wearables seem to work best when utilized in task-specific ways. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) give architects and interior designers the incredible ability to create detailed simulations of projects for clients and that surgeons can perform operations even more accurately. Wearables have also proven beneficial in improving quality of life for the chronically ill via VR and for police, security and military forces using body cams.

Office applications for wearables are also increasing and creating benefits for employees who work for the same company at different locations. Office headsets for meetings, for example, can make it seem like you are at the meeting rather than hunching over a conference room speaker. Virtual assistants keep everyone on task, translation devices ease and even erase communication barriers, and you can even improve your posture with a posture tracker. Smart suits, jackets and caps are also in the works.

Another benefit of using wearables at work is simply overall employee health. Step counters and programs to incentivize their usage promote positive lifestyle changes. Fitbit reported 1.6 billion in revenue in 2017 alone and Fitbit users take 43 percent more steps than non-users. This promotion is one of the most powerful pros to workplace wearables, as it is key to prevention of health issues and general employee wellbeing.

Given the general increase in adoption and overall benefits of wearables in the workplace, it stands to reason that more innovation and ease of use will mean these devices become more commonplace over time. And since they collect data, the real-time feedback they provide allows changes and adjustments can be made and pushed out quickly. All of which means that fitbit or smartwatch you already rely on is only just the beginning.

Graphene wearables

Graphene wearables

Wearable tech has been a slowly rising trend over the past decade. Most wearables these days are health-related, and tracking the body is a difficult task. We’ve seen tech such as sleep trackers and fitness trackers prove beneficial for consumers, but wearables have yet to achieve their full potential. With graphene, that may just become possible.

Graphene is well-known as a “wonder material,” and looking at its properties, it’s easy to see why. Graphene is one of the thinnest materials known to man; it is made up of a single layer of carbon atoms, all connected and interlaced into a lattice, honeycomb-like formation. In addition to being thin, graphene is also incredibly light. But don’t let its size fool you — it’s nearly 200 times stronger than steel, and possess technological capabilities far beyond our current materials provide.

Graphene is excellent at conducting heat and electricity, and the material is a frontrunner in replacing copper and silicon in tech devices. For instance, graphene is particularly good as a sensor, and is being researched for a variety of sensor types, including for gas, DNA, pH levels, environmental contamination, pressure, and more.

Graphene can also potentially impact wearables by powering them for greater capability and lasting power. Using graphene to create next-gen flexible batteries, University of Glasgow researchers have successfully created a graphene supercapacitor that is capable of recharging using solar power and discharges enough energy to power advanced wearable devices.

The most recent and perhaps most important breakthrough in graphene wearables to date were featured at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in their Graphene Pavillion. Research nonprofit organization ICFO presented revolutionary graphene-based health-monitoring wearables; these devices are less like the watches and bands that currently occupy much of the wearable tech space, and instead acts like a dermal patch. This means that the graphene wearable can be applied directly to the skin, which can result in improved readings when monitoring health metrics.

ICFO supposes that this graphene tech would be useful in monitoring hydration and blood oxygen levels. This would be particularly helpful for when people are in extreme conditions, such as at the Earth’s poles, high altitudes, or anywhere far from civilization. In such situations, someone could apply the patch, which would use graphene to create miniscule sensors, circuits, and batteries to power the wearable and allow it to track internal data.

The patch would then be paired with a smartphone to allow for real-time communication, and will notify users when they are at risk of dehydration or other severe medical statuses. The patches will also be made to be disposable, and the researchers at ICFO are working to ensure that all components, even necessary adhesives, are biodegradable and environmentally friendly.

With the newly revealed patch-like wearable, graphene is beginning to show the world how it can disrupt various tech-based industries, and the healthcare and medical fields are sure to benefit from graphene research. With the wonder material in its hands, the wearable tech industry is sure to continue making leaps and bounds moving forward.

A smart helmet for soldiers

A smart helmet for soldiers

Helmets are simple pieces of equipment with a singular function: to protect the wearer’s head. So when it comes to increasing safety capabilities, helmets are ripe for such improvement. Already, we are seeing smart helmets pop up for use in recreational activities like biking and motorcycling. But in particular, soldiers would benefit greatly from the development of smart helmets. Smart helmets would be greatly beneficial in helping prevent serious brain damage and hearing loss, two of the most prevalent dangers for soldiers.

Smart helmets for recreational use, such as biking or motorcycling, have adopted a number of safety capabilities that could be carried over to smart combat helmets. High-end helmet designs have even boasted 360 degrees of visibility, achieved by rear-facing cameras. For soldiers on the battlefield, this would greatly increase spatial awareness and help soldiers avoid danger. A popular feature of smart helmets also includes built-in navigation systems — for soldiers, always being aware of your position is another way to increase awareness and overall safety when in treacherous environments.

India has already begun developing smart helmets with similar spatial awareness capabilities for their soldiers. The helmet features thermal imaging, night-vision, a camera, and can help soldiers identify vehicles and others in the field, able to distinguish between friend and foe via geo-tagging technology.

In the UK, researchers are beginning the process of developing smart combat helmets that can prevent hearing loss. Soldiers are exposed to a significant amount of noise at high volumes, so much so that hearing loss has become a standard occupational hazard for armed forces. To gather information, researchers have been coming up with innovative technologies to record noise levels.

Nottingham Trent University’s Advanced Textiles Research Group has developed microelectromechanical system microphones (MEMS), which are capable of measuring noise levels for extended periods of time. The idea is to integrate the devices with acoustic yarn pieces that can go over each ear in order to unobtrusively record the sound data. With this first step, prevention of hearing loss in combat helmets will soon become a reality.

The US Army has also been experimenting with smart helmets, with a heavy focus on preventing the head damage that has become typical of a soldier’s experience, namely head trauma and hearing loss. In 2017, they developed the Integrated Head Protection System (IHPS), a lightweight ballistic helmet. It functions similarly to the polyethylene Enhanced Combat Helmet that is already being used in the field, but features protective add-ons like a jaw protector and a visor. More recently, the US Army began to test a prototype helmet that is 40% lighter than the IHPS and just as strong.

While particular areas of smart helmet features are being improved upon individually, it is only a matter of time before we see a form of protective headgear that combines these capabilities. In only a few years’ time, soldiers may have access to helmets that have increased protective capabilities for both hearing and physical damage, as well as heightened awareness technology. When this happens, soldiers will be much safer when operating in the field.

Are gut trackers the next big thing?

Are gut trackers the next big thing?

As personal health technologies such as wearable fitness and sleep trackers increase in popularity, we continue to see advancements in the convenient modern tech that allows us to monitor our health in increasingly complex and accurate ways. These steps forward leave us asking ourselves about the other ways we can use technology to improve our health. Recently, science has discovered that our intestines are much more important to our overall health than we previously thought, and as a result, we may just see gut trackers become the next big thing.

The importance of the gut stems from the enteric nervous system within our gastrointestinal tract. It is a lining made up of over 100 million nerve cells that span from the esophagus to the rectum that covers the entire gastrointestinal tract, and is commonly called our “second brain.” The gut has a direct relationship with the actual brain, and after sensing food or bacteria it will inform the nervous system, which relays this information to the brain and can affect behavior. Because of this connection, we are beginning to realize how we might treat particular disorders and conditions that may have links to the brain and to stress, such as obesity, anorexia, autism, and PTSD.

While our deeper understanding of the gut’s importance is still relatively fresh, the development of gut tracking technology has already begun to make headway, though most deal primarily with digestion. FoodMarble, a digestive health tech startup, is one of the first to produce a digestive tracker: a pocket-sized breath analysis device for users to track their digestion in real time.

When food isn’t quite fully digested, it ferments in the gut and produces hydrogen, most of which is exhaled naturally. FoodMarble users manually input what they’ve eaten and what relevant symptoms they are experiencing into an app, and the breath test is able to discern if the food has been fully digested. As you use the tracker more, the app will give you greater insights into how different types of foods, sleep quality, and stress levels affect their digestive health.

Other advancements in gut tracking are slightly trickier than a breath test. It’s hard to say what a “wearable” gut tracker would look like, but the closest thing to it is an ingestible tech pill developed by researchers at RMIT University in Australia. The pill closely tracks digestion through measuring the gases commonly found in the digestive system, such as hydrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Testing has already revealed new information to researchers. One such discovery is that the stomach releases oxidizing chemicals to break down foreign compounds that stay in the stomach longer than normal. The pill is a much less invasive option for monitoring gut health and human trials have been successful, so it may not be long before doctors are regularly using ingestible pills to help patients with gut problems.

Gut tracking options these days tend to have a purely digestive slant, but there remains great potential for gut trackers to dive into the gut-brain connection that is relevant to a multitude of issues. What if we had a gut tracker that could monitor the enteric nervous system and recognize when the synapses are being relayed from the brain and affecting the way the gut behaves? We are not quite there, but FoodMarble’s digestion tracker and the newly developed ingestible pill to track gut-gases are significant steps forward. Trackers that can monitor the gut-brain connection could very well be just around the corner.

Can we create smart thermal clothing?

Can we create smart thermal clothing?

Even with layers upon layers of thick clothing, there is only so much regular fabrics can do to fight the cold. So how can we make our clothes do more to keep us warm? While it may seem like a less obvious avenue for technological advancement, the use of lightweight and conductive fibers to create smart thermal clothing have the potential to create new breakthroughs for insulation. We are already seeing promising advancements in smart thermal clothing, and it has the potential to much more effectively protect people from cold and even detect the onset of cold-related conditions, such as hypothermia or frostbite.

Smart thermal clothing entered the tech landscape years ago, but many of the developed incarnations at the time were bulky and inefficient, using invasive and uncomfortable wires or large batteries. For smart thermal clothing, the ultimate goal is to be completely unobstructive, regulating a person’s temperature with little to no inconvenience. As we continue to make advancements in specific lightweight fibers, such as ones made with graphene, we are beginning to see truly viable forms of smart thermal clothing.

SKIINCore is one such clothing range that boasts effective smart thermal clothing. Their products, which include a thin long-sleeve top and leggings, utilize a conductive yarn that is sandwiched between a sweat-wicking synthetic inner layer and a heat-trapping wool outer layer. It uses a small non-intrusive 56g battery for heating power, able to keep the wearer warm for up to eight hours. Users can adjust temperatures with a smartphone app, or let the “smart” in smart thermal clothing shine by allowing the clothes to automatically adjust heat levels based on environment and body temperatures.

Another example of exemplary smart thermal clothing comes from Directa Plus, an Italian company that makes graphene-based products. They recently launched two textile collections utilizing their Graphene Plus (G+) material, made from a patented Pristine Graphene Nanoplatelet design. Their G+ membranes can be applied to a flexible range of clothing, including sportswear, citywear or workwear. The use of graphene-based materials increase heat conductivity and spreads the heat evenly throughout the material to regulate overall body temperature. The G+ membrane also amplifies electrical conductivity, allowing for accurate transmission of data from the body.

With such advancements in smart thermal clothing, and smart clothes in general becoming an increasingly popular trend, the future for these heat-regulating garments looks bright. Already we are seeing effective smart thermal clothing options for mainstream consumers. But the utilization of lightweight fibers like graphene and other inconspicuous conductive materials in clothing still have much room for growth, and it seems that very soon in the future we will see smart thermal clothing become truly intelligent.