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Ready to Test a 'SmartShirt'?
Roland Piquepaille writes "In a very brief article, Health Data Management reports that Sensatex Inc. is looking for beta testers for its SmartShirt system. These fully washable shirts are using nanotechnology to weave a conductive fiber grid into the cotton fabric to monitor your movements or your heart rate and transmitted wirelessly to a central computer. If the tests are successful, these shirts could be used to remotely check old people living alone, but also soldiers in the field or athletes. Read more for additional details and pictures of these 'smart' shirts."
I've fallen and -- oh you're here already. Thanks.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
...welcome our new SmartShirt overloads!
I don't trust these shirts. How are we sure that nanotubes won't break away or escape from the shirt and enter the lungs? How do we know that they're safe for people to wear? I think we're set for another DDT-style disaster here.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Now, if you want to be a beta tester, please contact the company (link under the "Press Room" tab).
Just thought you should know.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Frankly, I'm signing up to be a beta tester for several reasons. First, wireless anything is attractive to me.
Biometric information is wirelessly transmitted to a personal computer and ultimately, the Internet.
And I'd like to sniff the packets just to see what they are actually sending/what kind of encryption they are using/etc. Secondly, as someone who is trying to lose weight via an exercise program (I mean program literally - I play the dance game In The Groove) the following is also attractive:
The Athletic SmartShirt System allows the comfortable measuring and/or monitoring of individual biometric data, such as heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, caloric burn,
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Considering all the abuses of privacy going on recently, who knows who gets to see the data collected by the smartshirts? What privacy are we getting about the data collected by the smartshirts? And would they even be required by law to keep that data confidental?
There's too many privacy concerns, so until I feel secure enough in knowing that my private health information is not being sold or even placed into a national database, there's no way in hell I'm using those shirts.
If these things can monitor your movements, how about making a set of tights that can be used for motion capture.
Technoli
Embedding software into softwear...
Did we not learn anything from Wesley's experiment with nanotech on STNG? Of course, it would be nice to hang one shirt in an empty closet and come back a week later to a full wardrobe.
Ignore anything I said above, I actually agree with everything you believe - mod accordingly.
My shirt and I having a conversation in a club.
Shirt: "You do realize that deodorant is not in limited supply?"
Me: "Shut up damnit I sprayed the pits."
Shirt: "Yeah but what freakin' century and what is with those dance moves I mean Anthony Michael Hall doing the geek moves in the Breakfast Club had more grooves than you."
Me: "Ok crap this is the last time I take you out."
Shirt: "So, you are saying you are actually going to start having a social life?"
Me: "Life critiques from my apparel, wonderful."
Shirt: "Listen if you want to ditch me to the floor man that is all you there is a hottie right over there that is just dying to rip me off of you."
Me: "Really? Damn, point that out dude."
ACK
Talking about smart shirts, whatever happened to those t-shirts that changed colour depending on temperature. Do they still exist?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
to ask "But does it run linux?" gets a punch in the face... from Sensatex.
Perhaps then we'll actually believe you.
Apparently it does not unify GPS data with the heart rate, and other things like body temperature/caloric burn/respiration rate/etc either can be derived from the HRM/GPS or are just not that useful.
Also, while in the midst of training, the last thing you want to do is have your coach have to haul a laptop out - a simple stop watch and asking you about your own HRM readout will do the job.
In theory, there are some better products out there that can be developed, but this is not one of them.
Ohhh, now I get it.. T-Shirt, T-600, T-700, T-1000...
Now we know how it started. Well who's keen on testing nano technology bent on world destruction and extermination of the human race on his shoulders.
Anyone?
I can see it from here:
Soldier #1: Where is the enemy hiding?
Soldier #2: Let me do some packet sniffing.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
OK, combine this tech with some really good piezoelectric bits, and we're starting to see the underlying tech of the future teledildonic rig.
Talk about force feedback...
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
...something like this have been around for years in academic labs. Georgia tech for example has had a smart shirt for years.
If you're being mugged, you probably cant use a cell phone. But with this when a sudden elevated heart rate is detected, you may auto activate GPS and mics/video. Maybe even alert nearby people or police. Good for protecting kids etc.
Thered have to be reliable inputs or signal processing to detect the difference between fright/panic and running around etc.
It's called a "closet."
KFG
Homer: (in a backstage bathroom, wearing a motion capture suit and microphone) Urinal cake eroding...eroding...GONE!
Oh, think of all the motions that are going uncaptured!
While the concept is good for it's described purpose, I get this mental image of the government coming under fire in 20 years for illegally wiretapping somebody's panties.
Now the NSA can monitor my shirt. Great.
Polar and Adidas have had wearable heart rate monitors for ages. What's special about this?
Does it die when ripped?
If the tests are successful, these shirts could be used to remotely check old people living alone, but also soldiers in the field or athletes.
I'm sure that on the battlefield of the future nobody is going to want to wear a shirt that makes them glow like someone who killed one of their teammates in Counter Strike.
All they will figure out from /. users is a correlation between fast heart rate and trying to get first post on the latest article.
... like "Attention! This person is WANTED. If possible, DETAIN this person!"
I know you're just a troll and an idiot, but I just have to respond.
You can buy direction finding equipment at your local radio shack. If a country has the means to procure food and weapons, it can certainly procure radio and simple direction finding equipment. It can also manufacture its own with relative ease. This isn't exactly high-tech stuff we're talking about.
On top of that, you've got it all wrong. The only enemy that will dare force the US to attack it is one which is self-destructive enough to still live in third world conditions.
SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
check out this shirt. http://www.vivometrics.com/site/index.html I think the smartshirt is not so smart, more of a duplicateshirt
They are 'looking for testers' but nowhere on either article are any instructions or linked forms for anyone interested in being a tester. I also didn't find anything on their own site about them 'looking for testers'. They did have a normal 'contact us' page, but you'd think if they were actively seeking testers they'd actually say that somewhere and have some specific contact instructions - even so much as 'Call us and ask for Dr. So-and-so'
Man, this is definitely one of those headlines that does not pay to skim over (although I guess at least either way it manages to grab your attention)...
The mother of all necessity.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
shirt reports you!
Libertas in infinitum
Am I the only one who thought about BttF2 when they are in the future and the coat Marty is wearing auto-adjusts for size and dries itself? Screw monitoring, I want clothes that do that.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Paranoid? I think not. You can't be too careful who has access to your private medical information. Notice elsewhere in Health Data Management the article GAO Report Rips HHS for Lack of I.T. Security says:
HHS has not consistently implemented effective electronic access controls designed to prevent, limit and detect unauthorized access to sensitive financial and medical information at its operating divisions and contractor-owned facilities," the report states. "Numerous electronic access control vulnerabilities related to network management, user accounts and passwords, user rights and file permissions, and auditing and monitoring of security-related events exist in controls designed to physically secure computer resources, conduct suitable background investigations, segregate duties appropriately, and prevent unauthorized changes to application software.
I think you mean don't forget to bring a towel. And the last thing we need is clothes or towels spying on our heart rates. Anything that happens in the bathroom, stays in the bathroom.