Page 42 - EETEurope FlipBook February

42 EE|Times EUROPE

MARKET & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
IoT Clothing: The Next Generation of Wearables

By John Koon

IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK

earable electronics including Apple Watch, Fitbit, and other into the fabric of shirts, pants, socks, or
vital-sign monitors are becoming more and more popular. But shoes. Garments that fold and stretch to fit
the body can contain electronic components
another kind of innovation is evolving: wearable fabrics with that collect data. Data generated from skin or
Wbuilt-in electronics and sensors. These fabrics can be used to sweat in contact with the fabric could include
the wearer’s heart rate, blood pressure, blood
create clothing to monitor our vital signs. What opportunities and challenges
glucose level, blood oxygen level, body tem-
will these innovations bring? perature, and activity. For example, medical
technology startup Rhaeos has recently devel-
WHY WEARABLES? oped a wearable for noninvasive monitoring of patients suffering from
As the internet of things continues to grow exponentially, wearables an accumulation of brain fluids. Also, wearables can be used to monitor,
have emerged as the latest IoT frontier because of their enticing track, and protect those dearest to a consumer.
potential applications. Wearables’ benefits include convenience, ease of Sudden infant death syndrome is a new parent’s nightmare. It is
use, and real-time service. However, there are also daunting design and a relatively rare but critical phenomenon. On top of that, its cause
development challenges to overcome if remains unknown. Most, if not all, parents have gotten up in the middle
we are serious about expanding beyond of the night to check on their newborn’s breathing, adding to their
the current applications. exhaustion and sleep deprivation. Having the baby wear a shirt made
with IoT fabric and tracking the infant’s breathing via an app can help
CONVENTIONAL HEALTH-CARE parents relax and sleep better than they would if they had to rely on
WEARABLES: APPLE, FITBIT a conventional baby monitor. The app alerts parents to abnormal or
Wearable IoT is divided into four interrupted breathing. New York-based startup Nanit has developed
categories: health, recreation, tracking such a wearable for new babies and their bleary-eyed parents.
and localization, and safety. So far, the IoT fabric can also be used to track the elderly, hospital patients, and
recreation-oriented wearables offered kids. A GPS tracker in the fabric can send an alert, for example, when a
by companies like Apple and Fitbit help users monitor their weight and patient with dementia has wandered off or when a teen has not arrived
how much they exercise. Medical-grade wearables that enable doctors
to monitor patients remotely fall into the first category. But wear-
ables can do much more. They can also provide emergency care to the
elderly, monitor babies, and help collect data during clinical trials.
THE NEW WEARABLES
Less obvious and more comfortable
The new wearables will offer users more choices beyond wear in a
wristwatch manner, a plus for those who prefer not to advertise their
use of a wearable. Embedding an IoT device in other accessories such as
rings, bracelets, belts, and eyeglasses makes wearable use less obvious.

Built-in sensors in the fabrics
The least intrusive way of embedding IoT sensors is building them

FEBRUARY 2021 | www.eetimes.eu