Is Biometric Smartwear Clothing Ready to Replace Fitness Bands?
Have you heard of fitness biometric smartwear? Perhaps you know these innovative products as health wearables. The premise is very simple. Computers can monitor and track several important health and fitness variables automatically, perfectly, and then record that information. In the past, you had to stop your workout, pull out a notepad and jot down your results. But this still could not tell you if you were in the perfect zone for calorie burning weight loss, if your heart was functioning properly, if your sleep patterns were efficient or if your simple daily routine was healthy. That is where fitness biometric smartwear clothing comes into play.
Ralph Lauren is one of the most notable names in fashion. And the US Open every year is one of the most viewed and most important tennis tournaments in the world. So, what do these seemingly unrelated Kings in their fields have to do with wearable fitness tracking devices? The answer comes from a company named OMsignal. They have used Olympic athletes to help them design a line of shirts embedded with special silver thread. These shirts communicate wirelessly to a small credit card sized, Bluetooth enabled data storage and transmitting device.
Each of the 4 different shirts released by the company has a small pocket that houses this intelligence data tracker. Your heart rate, workload, calories burned and other important physical actions and functions are instantly monitored and recorded. If you move from one of these intelligent shirts to the next, you simply remove and replace the small data recorder. Wirelessly this gives you the ability to transfer this information automatically to your Apple or Android smartphone or tablet. The implications for your future are virtually limitless.
Some healthcare providers and medical institutions already employ computers and tablets so that you can wirelessly relay computer recorded physical information. This can be obtained through free and paid health and fitness applications that you download to your tablet or smartphone. But there are also health wearables which appear to be nothing more than a fashionable bracelet that track your important health metrics 24/7. Many of these include wireless Bluetooth technology, making communication with your doctor or physician simple and error-free.
The agreement between Ralph Lauren and the US Open Grand Slam tournament debuted the OMsignal shirts on that tournament’s ball boys. Every time a missed shot from Serena Williams or Roger Federer was fired, the intelligent health statistic monitoring shirt worn by the retrieving ball boy went to work. Breathing and stress levels, heart rate activity and other biometric measurements were instantly tracked and recorded, allowing for quick “real time” monitoring. The debut of this innovative technology is in advance of a 2015 major market launch by Ralph Lauren to offer a range of clothing which includes dress shirts and athletic wear embedded with the intelligent technology provided by OMsignal.
This is a positive move for a lot of reasons. While wristbands, headbands and clip-on devices are currently offered in the health wearable marketplace, their abilities are limited. When you are playing a game of hockey or lifting weights, your health tracking wristband or wristwatch does not really know how to interpret that data. Clothing makes much more contact with your body. This in turn offers a much truer recording of important body metrics.
Athletes and nonathletes, active and sedentary users alike can benefit from this new type of fitness biometric smartwear. In the future you will be able to simply walk into your doctor’s office, and wirelessly receive an instant interpretation of how healthy you are. And with smart shoes integrated with Google Maps already available, the explosion of truly wearable health and fitness tracking clothing is just around the corner.