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Are Smart Biometric Garments Going To Replace My Family Doctor?

This article is more than 5 years old.

What if your favourite t-shirt could also track your heart rate, monitor your exercise, and calm you down when you are stressed at work? With the advent of consumer grade smart biometric garments, these features are already available to early adopters since 2015. These sci-fi worthy smart clothing are a direct outcome of two separate sets of product innovations. Since 2005 application based health trackers in smart-phones have shown that consumers are willing continuously to track their health and since 2007 wearables like Fitbit and Apple Watches have proved that a large subset of these consumers is willing to pay for wearable devices to more accurately track their own biometric and behavioural patterns. A smart garment promises to do both, without the user having to wear additional devices.

© 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP

The most common type of smart clothing is compression shirts with built-in single-lead ECG to track heart rate and heart rate variability. These shirts typically come in multiple sizes and shapes, with additional built-in sensors to monitor movement, position, respiratory rate and body temperature. Montreal based company Hexoskin and OMSignal are leaders in the space. New York-based Supa and Germany based AmbioTex also have similar products. Athos’ smart clothing have built-in micro-EMG sensors that detect muscle activity during a workout and is primarily targeted at body-builders and gym goers doing weight training. Polar pioneered the smart clothing market with its single lead ECG based chest straps (Polar H10 Pro). Polar has also developed the Polar OH1 optical heart rate sensor that uses an optical sensor to measure heart rate. Companies like Biotricity have secured FDA clearance to create similar products for patients that need continuous remote monitoring at the hospital or at home.

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However smart clothing can do more than just biometric tracking. Levi's Commuter Trucker Jacket co-launched with Google's Project Jacquard platform can read gesture and help users will be able to interact with a variety of music and map apps. Smart socks developed by companies like Sensoria are designed to track movement and give feedback to users about their running styles. Siren’s smart sock is aimed at preventing diabetics' foot injuries. Owlet Smart Socks 2 is designed for babies and track their heart rate and blood oxygen saturation, which inturn helps parents to be proactive about their baby’s health.

© 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP

The smart clothing has grown significantly since 2015. New research by Juniper Research predicts that more than 7 million smart clothing units will be shipped to consumers units by 2020, and this number will increase to 30 million by 2022. Among the wearable marketplace, the smart clothing is growing at 102% CAGR, compared to hearables and smart-watches which are both growing at 31% CAGR. Juniper Research also predicts that the smart-clothing market will grow in value to US$ 1 billion in the next two years.

The supply chain of smart garments is complex and involves multiple product-lines for the electronics, casing and garment that are then finally integrated into a single product. To reduce these manufacturing complexities, the final product is often designed to be functional rather than fashionable. For example, by choosing to use a single design for the compression garment companies can significantly reduce the setup cost. As a direct result of this, the smart garment industry is currently targeted at early adopters like gadget enthusiasts and professional athletes. To capture the market at large the smart clothing brands and OEMs should collaborate with fashion design houses towards improving design features such look, the comfort of wear (breathability and lightness), ease of recharging the device, and durability. This will encourage more late-stage adopters to buy smart apparel. The smart clothing brands and OEMs should also focus on developing programmes to train family doctors and sports coaches to meaningfully extract insights from the biometric and motion data and use it in practice to better diagnose chronic diseases. This will ensure that the smart-clothing becomes the pill of the future that the doctor can already prescribe today.