If you figure out how to sell something people will always need, you’ll never go out of business. And, if you figure out how to sell something within another thing that people will always need… well, you’re just plain brilliant.
Take, for example, the materials research institution Empa and their latest discovery: soft sensors for textiles. In other words, what they created are heart rate sensors woven into clothing.
Do you have this in a Large?
Thanks to the discovery of a new melting technique, the Empa scientists developed a flexible polymer optic fiber that can be woven into clothing.
Traditionally, fiber-optics are associated with technologies that provide high-speed communication, but the cables they use are quite rigid. With Empa’s newly discovered technique, the polymer optic fibers are flexible enough to be sewn into clothing and knotted without breaking.
As long as the clothing makes contact with human skin, sensors in the textile send beams of light into the skin and monitor the change in light intensity, thus generating heart rate data. Good thing the baggy-style of the 90s is gone.
While this technology presents a more streamlined approach to a function that fitness trackers currently hold, the consumer market isn’t in Empa’s crosshairs right now.
Instead, these scientists want their technology to be used in hospitals worldwide, replacing those “drafty” hospital gowns with their heart rate-sensing, futuristic gown (which will, unfortunately, probably still be drafty).
The best part? You can throw it in the washing machine, too!
The future is wide open
They’ve only tested their technology to track heart rate, but ideally, the sensor could monitor oxygen saturation, metabolic products, and much more.
Personally, I’ve always thought fabrics were limited to cotton, polyester, or some blend of the two, but with this flexible polymer optic fiber and this material which acts like pores of the skin, we’re opening up a whole new realm of clothing production.
The future of fashion is looking bright for everyone, whether you’re interested in high-couture or Fruit of the Loom sweats. The merging of clothing and technology is happening now; soon, they’ll be introducing new capabilities to tube socks and new functions to your lucky pair of underwear.