The Pulse Sensor is a plug-and-play ready component that hooks up to the Arduino platform which opens a ton of possibilities to incorporate biometric data into wearable electronic designs thanks to it’s very small form factor.

The creator of the Pulse Sensor, Joel Murphy and Yury Gitman, set up a Kickstarter account to get the necessary funding and move that great idea from  prototype stage into mass produced, open source reality.

The Pulse Sensor works similar to a optical heart-rate pulse sensor, picking up the blood flow rate, preferable on a ear lobe or finger tip, via photodiode. It is not intended to be of medical grade accuracy but still – it gives highly reliable values according the the duo’s own testing.

With just 1/2 inch in diameter (about 12mm), looking like a piece of jewelry and having two holes to sew the button shaped Pulse Sensor to fabric, this little bugger is inviting itself for an easy integration into wearable tech designs that react and act in sync with the heart beat of the wearer.

You can find all the details about the Pulse Sensor on Kickstarter and on The Pulse Sensor home page. If you want to be one of the first to get your hands on the Pulse Sensor – you can still pledge your contribution to the already well funded project until Sept 7 and get the Pulse Sensor Kit including Software & Source Code, PDF User-Guide, and a “Special Thanks” on PulseSensor.com

[via: GizmoWatch]

MIT‘s Media Lab is without question one of the hot spots for research and pioneering wearable technologies since it’s very early stage. No wonder that many of the innovative companies in this field are coming directly out of their laboratories.

One of the latest start-up company in the wearable technology field is Affectiva, a Waltham-based company that will make wearable sensors for people with autism, planning to commercialize the iCalm concept developed by the Media Lab in their first product called ‘Q’, a textile wristband with built-in bio-sensors.

The sensors measuring skin conductivity to get a handle on what is happening with the wearer’s emotions and transmit wirelessly the data to a computer for data visualization and recording.

The wearable, wireless sensor platform allows comfortable, long-term sensing of physiological information coupled with low-cost connectivity to consumer devices including mobile phones and the laptop.

Possible applications for the wearable bio sensor include health monitoring for outpatients or elderly, communication of affective information for people who are non-speaking or otherwise interested in sharing this information, education for individuals who want to learn about their own internal physiological changes during daily life and  will be very useful for people with autism, their parents, and the therapists who work with them.

[via: Boston Globe]

Following up on the release of the Smart Textile Saloon exhibition list released last week, I am collecting more information (where available) about the projects on stage.

The wearable CO2 sensor, developed by Tanja Radu, Cormac Fay, King Tong Lau and Dermot Diamond at CLARITY (Centre for Sensor Web Technologies at Dublin City University) is a highly interesting topic .

Wearable gas sensors are not yet very common but interesting not only for emergency disaster clothing but also in other areas where detection and indication of hazardous gases like CO and CO2 are off concern.

The development of the Wearable CO2 sensor is part of the European project Proetex which aims to develop textile and fiber-based wearable sensor systems to improve the safety and efficiency of emergency personnel by monitoring the health status of the operator and the surrounding environment for potential risk sources.

The CO2 sensor is placed in a specially designed pocket located on the firefighter’s boot and a CO sensor in the firefighter’s garment. Both integrations are designed to protect the sensors but not to obstruct the firefighter’s activities.

Via a low power, wireless Zigbee link the sensor data can be send to the command station which monitors the rescue operation.

The project started in 2006 with an end date in early 2010 so I expect the models on exhibit at the Smart Textile Saloon will be the most advanced, wearable gas sensor designs.

Sensor integration into clothing, be it for professional, medical or sports clothing have the advantage of being unobtrusive, ‘always around’ (the body) to monitor our physical parameters and the immediate environment around our body for hazardous situations.

We could use stand alone sensor units and place them in our pockets or stick to our skin, but this requires quite some ‘dressing up’ time, the possibility of forgetting and/or losing such small devices during the action.

Textronics, who’s textile sensor is used to make one the most fashionable heart rate sensing sports apparel follows the trend in the wearable electronic industry by offering a developer’s kit for their heart rate textile sensors.

The Developer’s Kit contains a large selection of Textronics textile sensors (12x), different types of knit tubes with snaps, a knitted chest strap and wrist cuff. Also included are 2 transmitters and conductive sewing thread. The transmitters are compatible with most analog heart monitors in the market like the one from Polar.

Available for $100.- this richly stuffed tool box enables a quick start to experiment with the principles and apply them in new sport apparel designs or test them out for other wellness and heart monitoring apparel.

The launch of DIY and Developer Kits is always very welcome as it gives the opportunity for students, designer and DIY enthusiasts to have access to industrial grade components and materials. This allows focusing on the creative integration part of interactive clothing and takes away the sometimes time-consuming replication or simulation of such available technologies.

With this kit you can fit out your friends and family with self made high tech sport clothing, a nice way to say: get in shape.

QIO Systems which licensed the ElekTex and SOFTswitch technologies is putting back the textile keypad into the interactive fashion world.

A wealth of information is available on QIO System’s new Website showing the solutions QIO is offering to the fashion brands and manufacturers.

Next to the fabric keypad QIO Systems offers a wide range of electronic modules with control functions for the iPod, Bluetooth cell phones, wearable radio, Push-to-talk solutions and complete solution for integrated heating and integrated lighting into garments and soft goods.

Some of these modules are available while others are in the making. All this promises many new things to come to our interactive fashion world.

Some of the advantages of QIO Systems fabric keypad: it is fully textile and as such can we washed or dry-cleaned, it is thin (less than 2mm) and light weight (2gms), it guaranties 100,000 key presses and is used in thousand of garments all over the world.

To enable designer, developer and students to experience the advantage of using QIO Systems technology for their interactive fashion designs, QIO opened it’s store to get test samples of the keypad and control modules.

If you are working on your next future fashion item then check out the store and see if there is something you want to use in your next collection.

Instructables member Plusea aka Hannah Perner-Wilson posted a new version of a DIY Flexible Fabric Pressure Sensor.

The detailed step-by-step instruction shows how to make a flexible fabric pressure sensor with simple materials. It mentions two different variations, depending on your needs either for stretchy or non-stretchy fabric.

The materials for the DIY sensor are basically cheap and off-the-shelf. A more sophisticated, full textile version can be created as well but the required conductive textile material is more difficult to obtain although, it’s not impossible. You will find all required information in the Instructables.

This self-made Flexible Fabric Pressure Sensor is incredible simple to build but is very effective when you want to make your outfit responding to different pressure levels on a certain part of the clothing or bag or stuffed toy or gaming vest – just to give you some examples. This sensor should be part of any wearable electronic DIY sewing box.

To see how the pressure sensor works check out the video clip below:

Pressure Profile Systems, Inc. started in 1996 as a commercial spin-off from Harvard University to design, develop and manufacture high performance multi-element pressure and tactile sensing systems.

Their latest commercially available product is the FingerTPS(TM) (Finger Tactile Pressure Sensing). Flexible sensors are worn on the hand and transmit accurate, repeatable tactile force data to a computer via wireless Bluetooth connection.

FingerTPS is able to capture a complete representation of user interaction with tools, sports equipment, medical applications or during new product design processes allowing to optimize the product design for highest usage comfort or use the sensor data to evaluate and monitor the handling of products for training purpose.

The sensors are made from a soft, conductive Lycra® that conforms to the finger to allow dextrous operations such as typing or writing, and are fastened with small Velcro® straps. The wireless interface module can be recharged using a USB port and runs continuously for over 2 hours.

FingerTPS allows researchers and design engineers to understand how humans interact with machines, objects and general environment. Case studies and applications range from learning and training aid in medical education, optimization of ski boots by using the sensor during the inner shoe design for the most comfortable fit or for the design of motorcycle saddles to find the best shape for optimal riding comfort.

PPS Inc. has a wide range of different sensor types, optimized for different application areas. One example is the Stretchable TactArray Sensor (STS) which offers the ability to stretch up to 10% without degrading sensor performance. This unique feature makes the STS sensor ideal for applications where the sensor must be deformed during use. The simple design of the STS gives a great deal of freedom in designing solutions.

Another example is the Conformable TactArray Sensor (CTS) which offers the combination of sensor performance and design flexibility. Built from a flexible, conductive cloth that allows the sensor to be wrapped around cylindrical objects or molded to shapes with multiple radii of curvature.

All those sensors are not for consumer products, the FingerTPS has an entry system cost of $4,995 for a single-hand set with two sensors but this price includes a video camera for synchronized video input, software, and a reference sensor for easy, one-touch calibration.

Nevertheless, a unique addition to the e-textile tool set that opens new avenues in designing more comfortable consumer products but also opens the doors to new types of user interaction concepts.

Check out more details directly by PPS.

We are all stressed at some point just how stressed, we can’t quantify objectively. This will change very soon according a press release from Fraunhofer-Institut für Zuverlässigkeit und Mikrointegration when the textile stress sensor vest becomes reality.

From sports training to computer games, our garments will register the electrical excitation of the muscles at any given time and determine the level of physical stress.

The textile sensor is part of the EU’s CONTEXT project where companies and research institutes teamed up to develop a comfortable vest that will read muscle tension and deduce stress levels at any given time.

At the core of the vest are sensors woven into the fabric that register the electrical excitation of the muscle fibers and thin conducting metallic fibers that pass the signals to an electronic analysis system.

Some of the ideas the project team can imagine as use of the textile sensor is for a computer game vest to control objects on the screen by muscle tension (may be something to get you in shape), or use this sensor to lift heave loads assisted by robotic arms controlled by imagine/contract you muscles. The most interesting application idea: sports coaches could tell from the electronic vest whether athletes have reached their performance limits or still possess energy reserves. This one might not always be the favorite sportswear for some of our athletes.

‘The most important requirement for everyday use is a robust electronic system,’ says Torsten Linz of the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM in Berlin, the partner responsible for the ‘packaging’. The entire electronic system has to be resistant to water and perspiration. The electric conductors must not fray even after repeated laundry cycles, and the sensors must be no larger than buttons to ensure that the garment is comfortable.

I am looking forward to get this technology into my T-shirt to tell me to slow down in the ‘mission critical’ projects in my office life.

Read the complete press release.