Leave it to sports to come out with some really creative and innovative technology. I know I’ve spend far too much money to go to sporting events and so it makes sense that they’d have money to pay for some really cool healthcare devices.
Medgadget recently posted about an Under Armour Biometric shirt that the NFL was using to measure athletic performance.
The shirt has electronic sensors that measure heart and breathing rates and skin-surface temperature, and a triaxial accelerometer to measure force and direction. All the data that it collects is sent out via Bluetooth. The amazing thing is that this shirt and it’s “bug” has 2 gigabytes of storage along with its processor and accelerometer. That’s more than most devices like this. Although, you do have the cost of the “bug” which comes in a removable sensor pack.
While this is really cool for the NFL who wants to test the athletic capability of an athlete, I think there could be some really interesting uses of this technology in the home. What if we wore this shirt when we are working out at home on the treadmill or when we go for a run. All of that data could be uploaded to a PHR or other website where all the data could be graphed and be used to monitor the health of an individual. Although, I bet the cost of the device will need to come down to make a consumer version of this product.
Here’s a video which shows more about the Under Armour E39:
Imagine this technology in a Long Term Care facility where patient garments have the BUG and the nurses station can track vitals real time, patient location real time.
Great application of the bug. I could see that working very well.
[…] of the weaknesses mentioned in our previous article was the cost of these devices. That will likely not be a huge deal when it comes to professional […]