“Smart Clothes” – When Health and Fashion Come Together

An increasing number of businesses are combining retail and health care by developing sensor-enabled clothes that can run tests usually performed at the doctor’s office. Garments include sensor-packed bras that help indicate cardiac arrest, a jumpsuit for babies that detects movement, and mosquito-proof clothing that prevents illnesses like malaria. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Where it all started

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed smart clothes with the vision of helping monitor people who are ill in a hospital or at home, as well as athletes and astronauts. 

These machine-washable garments are also tailored to fit close to the body of the person wearing them. The LG Electronics Career Development Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, Canan Dagdeviren, says the clothes are “…customizable, so we can make garments for anyone who needs to have some physical data from their body like temperature, respiration rate, and so forth.” 

How smart clothes work 

In each piece of clothing, the electrical sensors, which are long, flexible strips, are covered in epoxy and then weaved into narrow channels in the fabric. The sensors touch the skin through tiny holes in these channels. Soon after, the data can be sent wirelessly from each piece of clothing to a smartphone. 

Sensors placed in clothes can be machine-washed. According to the team, the sensors can also be removed and transferred to another garment. 

Will smart clothes soon become a medical norm? 

We’ll have to wait and see. For now, as Canan Dagdeviren mentioned, this kind of sensing technology could be helpful for personalized telemedicine allowing doctors to monitor their patients from home  or to monitor health in astronauts while they’re in space.

“You don’t need to go to the doctor or do a video call. Through this kind of data collection, I think doctors can make better assessments and help their patients in a better way.” – Canan Dagdeviren.