Clevertex - Grado Zero Espace Srl

A similar idea to the LifeShirt is the SmartShirt. But instead of using conventional cables like in the
LifeShirt, electrically conductive and optical fibres are woven in the garment that serve as data
transmission lines, so that different sensors can be attached directly to the shirt. Initially developed at
the Georgia Institute of Technology for a project funded by the United States Navy, the shirt is now
produced and marketed by the company Sensatex Inc. by a licensing agreement. The SmartShirt
functions like a computer to monitor different parameters of the wearer, like penetration, respiration,
heart-rate, temperature, caloric burn and blood pressure. Two prototypes (third and forth generation)
are illustrated in Fig. 46.
Fig. 46 SmartShirt
The shirt utilises the so-called Wearable Motherboard (described in section 2.3.3.1). Thus, broad
based sensors are integrated to eliminate the need for loose wires and discomfort. The technology
allows several sensors to be mounted at different locations on the garment and allows information to
be transferred to and from the sensor.
The textile platform, illustrated in Fig. 47 collects data from the various parts of the human body and a
wireless communication/data management software platform routes it to a small transceiver device
attached to the shirt. Collected data is processed and transmitted via the internet for biomedical
monitoring and wearable computing applications.
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