Workout Clothes That Buzz When You Go Wrong on the Anvil
Designers are ready to launch gym-ready clothes to improve your performance while exercising.
The goal of the Move project, which is headed by designer Jennifer Darmour, is to make clothing with embedded sensors that can help people improve their technique at Pilates and Ndash - a popular exercise regime that demands precise positioning of the back and abdominal muscles.
Each garment contains four stretch-and-flex sensors woven out of conductive fibres embedded in the front, back and sides.
Darmour worked with a Pilates instructor to learn where people commonly make mistakes during class - backs collapse, hips jut at the wrong angle and stomach muscles "dome", New Scientist reported.
You do a wrong move, the stretch sensors detect the misalignment and small vibrating motors respond with gentle buzzes in the offending area.
When the movement is corrected, the same hip receives three approving buzzes.
The system also transmits body position data via Bluetooth to your smartphone, and an accompanying app lets users analyse how well they performed their exercises.
The software collects information over the entire workout and presents it as animations that can be replayed to understand where you tend to go astray.
The fabrics used fro the garment is that of standard exercise clothes, and the sensors are woven invisibly into the fabric and seams.
The work was presented at the Wearable Technologies conference in San Francisco last month.
Source: ANI