Technology Meets Fashion with Ralph Lauren’s Latest Invention

Wearable technology just got a little trendier with Ralph Lauren’s latest fashion endeavor.

The 2014 US Open Tennis Championships are underway and fans far and wide will be able to see the Polo Tech smart shirt for the very first time. This compression shirt will be worn by the ball boys throughout the entire tournament.

So, what’s so special about this shirt? For starters, it combines the biometric technology from OMSignal and the design is provided by none other than famous fashion designer, Ralph Lauren. The shirt will have the ability to read your activity such as steps, the length of your activity, heart rate and breathing. All of these statistics are delivered in real-time to your Bluetooth-equipped smartphone.

Ralph Lauren’s expertise is in fashion and OMSignal’s expertise is in technology. That’s why the two joined forces to provide their respective pieces that have been fused together into one shirt of the future.

On the surface, it may just look like your average shirt; however, this “average” garment is not-so-average.

In fact, this compression shirt that fits snug to the contour of a person’s body consists of a band that is made of slightly thicker material that is positioned right below the chest. Attached to the band by way of five traditional snaps is a black module, which holds the Bluetooth transmitter, gyroscope and the accelerometer.

Basically, the shirt is the sensor and underneath the fabric are the silver-yarn-based sensors. The material of the fabric is anti-microbial and it can detect the expansion and compression of the user’s chest. As the user breathes, the fabric reads the electrical changes that are associated with heart rate. The sensors in the shirt then collect statistics and data, which are sent in real-time to the Ralph Lauren mobile app.

As of right now, this invention is still in the prototype stage and is only being used currently by the US Open Tennis Championships’ ball boys. The idea behind this invention is that it looks to find a better way to record fitness and heart rate data during exercise rather than wearing monitors that could potentially get in the way for the user.

Copyright Inventionland 2014

Sources:

https://mashable.com/2014/08/25/ralph-lauren-smart-t-shirt/