Interesting find, Eric. Here's a bit more about SensaTex which I found on the website of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association "Buzzwords" dated Friday, June 16, 2000:
Company Licenses 'Smart Shirt'
The New York firm SensaTex Inc. has signed a licensing agreement for the "smart shirt" designed by Georgia Tech scientists.
The "smart shirt," which can measure human body characteristics and functions continuously, will be modified for a variety of applications or uses, according to SensaTex.
"Our first products will likely be in the medical monitoring area, " said Jeffrey Wolf, chief executive of the Manhattan-based firm. "But other uses could range anywhere form athletic or sports monitoring, surveillance on scuba divers or various forms of wearable computing."
The shirt was developed in 1996 by a team at Georgia Tech, led by Sundaresan Jayaraman, a professor in the School of Textile and Fiber Engineering, working under a contract with the U.S. Navy.
The shirt, composed of fabric with imbedded optical and conductive circuitry, would be worn as a foundation garment, such as a T-shirt, and would be attached to the body.
Among the first applications that could have commercial use include plans to use the shirt technology to produce garments that medical patients can wear, said Wolf. The shirt could then discreetly relay information to physicians or other medical staff about heart function, respiration, temperature and other indicators of well-being. Among those who could benefit from this would be infants at risk for sudden infant death syndrome.
Wolf anticipated that the shirt could soon become a revenue producer for the company and for Tech, which would channel the school's cut of the profits into further research, said Jayaraman, a specialist in the relationship between textile engineering and computing.
A key to the commercial success of the "smart shirt" is that is will be less costly than current monitoring systems.
SensaTex will seek FDA approval for the "smart shirt" after conducting human testing of the garment in a clinical setting.
You heard anything about what our friends at Stayhealthy feel about this alternative to the LifeShirt?
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