
Smart shirt launched on Kickstarter
The e-skin smart shirt is a product from Xenoma (Tokyo, Japan), a spin-off from Someya Group Organic Transistor Lab in the University of Tokyo and JST/ERATO Project. Its proprietary stretchable electronics were developed at the lab and include 14 strain sensors and a six-axis accelerometer and gyroscope to unobtrusively capture and track upper body motion as well as respiration.
Data from the shirt is sent to external devices through an attached hub over Bluetooth and can be used as an input controller in games, or for analyzing form in sports/fitness activities or as an upper-body activity tracker. The company claims that the smart shirt has the comfort, durability, and machine washability of a regular shirt and can be used both indoors and outdoors for “many hours.”
“In the near future,” says the company, “connected clothing will be the most natural way for people to interact with internet, and other people. We do not refer to e-skin a ‘wearable device’ because it is just a shirt, and a shirt is always to be worn.”
The e-skin will also include a software development kit to support machine learning. It can work with the Microsoft HoloLens, and users can expand the scope of gesture input to create more augmented reality content development possibilities.
The e-skin Kickstarter campaign has currently reached over 75% of its $50,000 pledge goal. The project will be funded if it reaches its goal by September 6, 2017 12:00 PM EDT.
Related articles:
Smart textiles market to accelerate from here, says report
Stretchable electronics giving shape to ‘disruptive megatrend,’ says report
Microsoft brings AI to its HoloLens AR headset
Smart clothing computes wearer’s thermal needs
Inkjet-printed stretchable IC promises inexpensive smart fabric
