**2.2.2 Commercial products**

The LifeShirt, released by Vivometrics, is the first commercially available piece of smart clothing. It consists of a washable lightweight vest, a data recorder, and PC-based software. Its capabilities include continuous monitoring of the ECG, respiration, activity, and posture (Fig. 7) (Grossman, 2004). It has been used in various studies, and its potential applicability in future studies has been acknowledged. Additionally, its performance, such as HR detection, has been demonstrated to be accurate (Heilman and Porges, 2007). Foster-Miller's Watchdog physiological monitoring tool is a comfortable, garment-based system for monitoring HR, respiration rate, posture, activity, skin temperature, and GPS location. The Smart Shirt, manufactured by Sensatex, contains sensors that monitor vital signs, such as ECG, HR, respiration, and blood pressure (Pantelopoulos and Bourbakis, 2010).

Fig. 7. The LifeShirt system

Health Care with Wellness Wear 49

temperature, and the like. While the subject is sitting, sleeping, walking, running, exercising, or performing any other activity, biosignals are recorded and transmitted to the terminal and/or the server. Smart phones can be both terminals that transmit the data and devices that enable the application software to run. The software system analyzes the signals and other general data such as age and gender, and provides the user with a relevant medical

Using calorie tracking as an example, here, we describe four of the important elements required for the development of the wellness wear system that we are implementing: biosensors, digital yarns, a software framework, and communication and medical services.

When we develop biosensors that are attachable to wellness wear, two crucial factors are accuracy of the obtained signals and user comfort. However, a tradeoff is typically required between them. Generally, the more accurate wearable biosensors are, the less comfortable they are, and *vice versa*. Thus, a future goal concerns how to overcome this. Comfort is a particularly important element. Because biosensors are adhered to smart clothes and touch the skin, they should be small, comfortable, and noninvasive. This is one of the reasons for the requirement for nanofiber. In fact, nanofiber is comfortable even when sensors are attached to smart clothes. For example, the physiological sensor belt (PSB), which detects the breath and pulse (Kim et al., 2009), is poromeric and protected from electromagnetic waves.

Several typical vital signs can be detected by biosensors attached to wellness wear. As we saw in the previous section, the ECG is one biosignal that most smart medical clothes aim to detect. It is ideal to detect life-threatening diseases early and to monitor patients and manage health through wireless communications (Taylor and Sharif, 2006). HR variability (HRV) extracted from ECG is also an important biosignal that helps in diagnosing heartrelated illnesses and can check the efficiency of exercise and even stress. Respiration

It is much more comfortable than ordinary hospital devices that sense vital signs.

recommendation. Figure 9 illustrates the scenario described.

Fig. 9. Use scenario of a wellness wear system

**3.2 Biosensors** 

The Zephyr BioHarness technology is well-known because it was used in connection with the rescue operation of 33 trapped miners in northern Chile's San Jose mine (Zephyr Technology, 2010). It has also been adopted by NASA for use by astronauts in training. The BioHarness, a chest strap with sensors and wireless technology, monitors and transmits the wearer's vital signs, such as ECG data, HR, breathing rate, skin temperature, posture, activity, acclerometry, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry. Vital signs are transmitted with ISM or Bluetooth for remote monitoring anywhere in the world. The software platform OmniSense is used to display the BioHarness data.

Fig. 8. The Zephyr BioHarness technology
