Wear Smartwear Clothing for a healthier life!

The wearable technology revolution is here. After smartwatches and fitness bands, we have smartwear clothing. As people are becoming increasingly health conscious, health-tracking devices are getting popular. Smartwear clothing made from biometric textile material is one of them.

There are many new companies coming out with smartwear clothing. OMsignal of Montreal makes biometric smartwear T-shirts that can track your “Performance, Health and Fitness” by monitoring your movements, breathing and heartbeat. Health sensors embedded into the fabric measure your biometric data and vital signs such as heart rate and its variability, breathing rate and volume, type of movement and its intensity and the calories burned by you. This data is then relayed to the OMsignal app in your phone via Bluetooth. The app gives you feedback like how much energy you have left in reserve or offers suggestions on how to manage and improve your vitals.

Stéphane Marceau, CEO and co-founder of OMsignal says,”  “We’ve been wearing clothing all our lives.  It’s the most natural and therefore the ultimate “wearable” medium. Clothing has always been about protection and fashion, but it will now also help motivate us to better ourselves every day.”

Initially, four varieties of biometric T-shirts are available for men that come in S-XL sizes and six color combinations. The good thing is that they are machine washable. The shirt with the black box (that relays your vital stats to your phone) costs around $200-$240.

AIQ Smart Clothing Inc. of Taiwan also produces fashionable smart clothing by merging electronic and textiles. Their clothing offers comfort and at the same time monitors vital signs through wearable electrodes relaying data via blue tooth to mobile phone. The clothes are machine washable.

There are a few other companies such Cityzen Sciences of France or Sensilk in the US that embed sensors in clothing to make them ‘smart’. Since clothes cover more portion of the body, perhaps smartwear clothing may prove to be better health trackers than watches or bands. What do you think?

Wear Smartwear Clothing for a healthier life!

Apple recruited MLB, NHL and NBA pro athletes for testing iWatch

Apple has teamed up with some of the sports world’s most notable professional athletes in order to scan their upcoming ‘iWatch’s’ fitness capabilities in intense training environments, according to a source with knowledge of the testing,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.

Apple is currently recruiting professional athletes from the NBA, NHL and MLB to test its iWatch. According to the report, Lakers athlete Kobe Bryant was spotted at Apple’s campus, as he was expected to meet up with Sir Jony Ive in regards to testing the upcoming iWatch. Los Angeles Kings right winger Dustin Brown was also spotted, as well as a player from the Boston Red Sox and a few other athletes. The athletes are said to have signed non-disclosure agreements regarding the existence of the upcoming Apple wearable device.

This new development is indicating that Apple’s new iWatch will have a strong focus on fitness. Combining the fitness features together with HealthKit in iOS 8, Apple’s iWatch is expecting to monitor things like steps taken, calories burned, and heart rate.Apart from this, reports also specifies that Apple has been working on advanced sensors to read a person’s hydration levels, blood pressure, and sweat.

Apple has also hired former Nike fitness consultant Jay Blahnik to work on its iWatch. Blahnik was part of the development of the Nike+ running accessory and app, which went inside Nike shoes and collaborated with the iPhone. This, however, is not the first time we hear about a possible Nike association in Apple’s wearable plans.

Over the last month, reports have been pointing that the iWatch will come in two sizes and will use a 2.5-inch display. Apple might launch the device during next quarter end along with the iPhone 6.

Apple recruited MLB, NHL and NBA pro athletes for testing iWatch