WearTec

“This prototype “power jacket” from Matsushita Electric Industrial (parent of consumer electronics company Panasonic) is designed to help patients recover from partial paralysis. Sensors at the elbow and wrist allow a healthy arm to control the eight artificial muscles, which are powered by compressed air, on the paralyzed side.”

I’m not a rehabilitation expert, but this prototype certainly sounds interesting. While paralysis may be permanent this could also be used for people recovering from accidents and partly replace physiotherapist treatments, because they can move the injured arm and perform exercises by using the healthy arm.

[via CNet]

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Fossil has launched two bluetooth enabled watches. While this is not a bluetooth headset replacement (which would have been a really cool secret agent gadget) the Abacus watches will vibrate to alert you of incoming calls and SMS messages and will display the caller ID.
Both watches seem to have the same functionality, but one has a metallic wrist band, whereas the other one has a plastic band - a question of personal preference I guess. Owning one of these will set you back around $200.
[via I4U News]

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A multinational research team, funded by the European Society of Cardiology, have developed a shirt that is capable of recording an electrocardiogram (ECG). The fabric of the shirt contains wires that form an electrode, which is used to record the heart’s electrical activity. In addition to recording the data, the shirt is also capable of transmitting the data via a cell phone network or Bluetooth.
Early tests are promising: an ECG was recorded of 15 test patients and the data was compared to a standard ECG system. The tests showed that both data sets were of equal quality.

I have written about a similar product earlier.

Smart clothes like this shirt could have a huge impact on home care and remotely monitoring patients. While this first prototype monitors heart activity, future shirts could record other parameters such as body temperature and breathing.

Source: fibre2fashion

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If you are a runner, chances are that you have seen, or in fact are using, one of these heart monitors that strap to the chest and have a little wireless watch that shows you your heart rate.
Polar Electro and Adidas have taken this concept one step further by integrating sensors to monitor speed, heart rate and distance into shoes and clothing.

“How does it work? Special fibers bonded onto adidas tops, work in conjunction with Polar’s Wear Link™ technology to eliminate the need for a separate chest strap to monitor heart rate. Just snap the tiny Polar WearLink connector onto the front of the shirt and go. The data is sent to the Polar RS 800™ wrist-mounted running computer, which easily displays and records all information in real time. Simply put, your shirt talks to your running computer.

[…]The adiStar Fusion shoe has a strategically placed cavity in the midsole which can house the very light Polar s3™ Stride Sensor, making it easier to use, more comfortable and more consistently accurate than top-of-shoe systems. And you won’t even know it’s there when your shoe is talking to your running computer.

Information like speed and distance, chronograph functions, along with heart rate, are also shown on the RS800™ in real time. And when the workout is over, all data can be downloaded onto a computer so workouts can be easily managed and analyzed, meaning the whole system talks to you.”

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