Aug 2 2017
A shirt packed with sensors allows you to study your golf swing, detect health problems and even play beat 'em up video games in the virtual world.
An official wearing goggles shows how data on body movements collected by a sensor-equipped shirt is reflected in a virtual world viewed using the goggles at the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Tokyo headquarters in Chiyoda Ward. (Credit: Takashi Sugimoto)
Xenoma Inc., an entrepreneurial spinoff from the University of Tokyo, developed the special shirt with sensors that can monitor the user’s body movements without using cameras and send the data to smartphones and other devices.
The high-tech garment can be used for purposes such as analyzing how pilots operate airplanes, according to company officials.
Most conventional technologies to analyze body motions use cameras to detect movements of sensors set up on people’s bodies.
A total of 14 sensors to monitor changes in its shape, along with electric circuits made of electrically conductive fibers and ink, are embedded in the surface of the newly developed shirt so it can detect body movements without resorting to cameras.
Data gathered by the shirt can be sent by radio to smartphones and computers. The garment can maintain its performance even after it is washed more than a hundred times, according to the officials.
“The garment is as comfortable as other ordinary shirts,” said Ichiro Amimori, CEO of Xenoma. “In the future, I want to create clothing that can detect signs of diseases by using sensors to monitor heart activity and blood glucose levels.”
The developed shirt is available for corporate customers.