High-tech clothes to monitor health

London, Feb 25: The day doesn't seem very far when high-tech clothes to monitor our health will occupy a place of pride in our wardrobe.

These clever textiles embedded with tiny sensors collect information about the wearer's movements and vital signs like respiration, heart rate, surface and core temperature, which are monitored remotely using embedded GPRS transmitters.These smart clothes already exist and are all set to capture a market niche especially in the elite sport and health care, European researchers said. People with heart conditions or undergoing rehabilitation that require constant monitoring, athletes, newborns and people with sleep apnoea stand to benefit from such clothes.

These sensitive garments provide location-based services (LBS) which could also help keep soldiers and emergency crews safe in extreme conditions, researchers working on Wealthy and MyHeart projects said.

''Such clothes have a vast number of applications and the garment would need to be customised for each task,'' said Rita Paradiso of Smartex, a textile firm which hopes to launch these attire soon.

This new line of clothing do more than look stylish and keep the cold out. It looks great and can keep you healthy and active at the same time, a recent article in the Wired Magazine said.

UNI