Our Clothes are Getting Smarter

Continuous, real-world medical monitoring is already possible through the Vivometrics LifeShirt system. Instead of the limited "snapshot" of health derived from a standard examination, the system measures more than 30 parameters of cardiopulmonary function during a patient's normal daily activities and provides the clinician with a far more comprehensive analysis. This "health movie", as Vivometrics describes it, gives insights into the interrelation between the patient's state of mind and their condition as well as the effects of any medication being used.

LifeShirt's core technology is the respiratory monitoring system Respitrace, which is embedded into the 225g washable "shirt" along with other sensors. A recording device is used to store the data before its processed, analysed and summarised for display in a number of formats and optional peripheral devices are available to measure blood pressure and blood oxygen levels. The system has been approved by and is commercially available in the E.U. and Canada. Although VivoMetrics is not currently selling the system in Australia, they plan to market it here in the future.

Computerised Clothing

It's hard to tell where wearable computers end and computerised clothes begin - Gizmag has looked at some of the latest innovations in previous issues including the Xybernaut head-up display system (see article 1163 at gizmag.com), and the Philips/Nike collaboration on portable audio players designed to be worn during athletic activity.

Perhaps the first example of wearable computing or WearComp was invented by Dr. Steve Mann at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After two decades of research Mann first demonstrated the "Wearable Wireless Webcam" in 1994 by transmitting images from a head-mounted analog camera to base station via amateur TV frequencies where they were reconstructed in a web browser in near real-time.Mann is accredited with providing the basis for the MIT Wearable Computing Project which now includes Mithril, a leading platform in next generation research that will shape the wearable computers of the future. Undertaken at the MIT Media Lab to develop completely new techniques for interfacing with computers, the research is being conducted on a broad front embracing human interaction, artificial intelligence, hardware engineering and software development for health and communications applications.

Components envisioned by the project include a vest containing multiple CPU cores for storage and wireless connectivity and a "Body Bus" which supports a wide range of sensors including cameras, microphones and custom equipment such as GPS receivers, accelerometers and biosensors aimed at boosting the key research goals of the project: human-computer interaction and context awareness that will enhance the computer's ability to measure the surrounding environment and react accordingly.

The research is also being applied to smaller wearable platforms like sunglasses. The "Memory Glasses" reminder system is designed to out-perform PDAs because reminders are associated with context - where you are and what you are doing - making it a proactive rather than passive system that will know what to do when you get into the car or arrive at the office.

The vest prototype pictured appears heavy with wiring as it was created before Bluetooth and other reliable wireless solutions were operational. Advances in wireless technology will obviously impact on the design but their will still be power-supply and privacy issues that may be difficult to overcome in the near future without the use of hard wiring. Mithril is an architectural project developed on the Linux platform and as such doesn't have a specific product or market in its sights. Lord of the Rings fans might recognise the word play - the vest that saves the hero Frodo's from an Orc spear in the Mines of Moria is made from a magical substance called mithril.

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