Biometric Clothing Measures Respiratory and Activity Metrics

Smart clothing with embedded body sensors provides a non-invasive monitoring solution for cardiac, respiratory, and daily activity monitoring.

Developed by Hexoskin (Montreal, Canada), the Hexoskin connected healthcare platform is a range of textile-based, washable, silver coated nylon garments embedded with cardiac, abdominal, and respiratory digital signal processing (DSP) sensors, and a 3-axis accelerometer used to track activity and acceleration. The cardiac sensors allow for electrocardiogram (ECG) one channel data at 256 Hz, heart rate detections at rates ranging from 30 to 220 BPM, respiratory rate intervals at 4 ms resolution, and heart rate variability (HRV) analysis.

The breathing sensors include two channels (at 128 Hz) and can sense breathing rates from three to 80 breaths per minute (BPM), and the movement sensors can detect acceleration at .004 g resolution. The respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) sensors have additional assessment channels that include 50-60 Hz noise detection, disconnection detection, and baseline change detection. Additional features include 14+ hours of battery life, 600+ hours of standalone recording, and Bluetooth connectivity with iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms.

“We spend such a huge chunk our economy to cure people. If you want to keep them healthy you have to do preventive health,” said Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, CEO and co-founder of Hexoskin. “If want to do that, we have do education and you have to put sensors on a large group of people. The best way to do that is to have biometric clothing.”

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