BERKELEY, California: Tech companies are cashing in on the trend for wearable devices, an industry predicted to rocket from US$1.4 billion to US$19 billion by 2018.
Wearables are all the rage - from Wristify, a smart bracelet that cuts energy use by heating or cooling the wearer, to lightweight 3D-printed robotic hands for young amputees. But many wearables feel bulky, so new innovation aims to take them off consumers' bodies and put them into what they wear.
BeBop Sensors, in Berkeley, near San Francisco, recently unveiled an ultra-thin "smart fabric" that gives real-time information on motion, bending and pressure. They see applications in everything from ski jackets to baseball gloves and yoga mats.
Keith McMillen, Founder and CEO of BeBop Sensors, said: "The sensors can operate and communicate through fabric to a small embedded circuit that will then take over the rest of the processing and transmission of the data."
The company has found a way to use kinetic energy to power their embedded circuits and bluetooth sending data to a remote device. For example, a shoe insole can show a person how they are walking and help correct their gait. Chair cushions highlight uneven weight distribution, and the smart fabric - fitted within a cap - can record the force of a sports injury.