E-skin wants to track your movements and form
As some wearables are dying out, smart clothing could very well be the next big thing.
E-skin is a new garment made by Japanese firm Xenoma, that measures movement, breathing, pressure, perspiration and body temperature. The futuristic looking shirt was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.
There is certainly no shortage of fitness trackers to choose from these days. A flood of statistics is churned out by these devices but, for the most part, it is left down to the users to sift through this data and draw meaningful conclusions. Your run-of-the mill fitness tracker can track steps, but it can’t function as a personal coach for monitoring and improving form. This is where E-skin steps in.
The machine-washable smart shirt is designed to be worn like a regular garment. It is made with printed circuit fabric so can be integrated into traditional textiles. The shirt features 14 silver motion-sensing circuits which are hidden within the fabric. A small hub sits on the chest to collect all the information and communicate it to a smartphone or personal computer for real-time number crunching.
The possibilities are endless. You could use the black zip-up garment as an input controller for gaming and VR experiences. In healthcare you could use it to monitor body movement, posture and respiration.
The shirt tracks bending and stretching movements and the position of your upper body, so can also be used in sports and fitness. For example, in golf, the shirt can dish out information on your swing, form and stance as displayed on the video below.
The Xenoma E-skin, which won a CES Innovation Award, definitely has lots of potential. The Japanese startup plans on selling the men’s version to developers on February 1st. The women’s version will follow soon after.
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