With the market for wearable devices projected to reach more than 100 million units annually by 2016 according to ABI Research, many companies are pursuing new products to take advantage of consumer interest. Collaboration of three companies, Maxim Integrated, Clearbridge VitalSigns, and Orbital Research, has produced the Fit shirt for preventive medical care that could reduce health care costs by up to 10x.
The shirt enables medical professionals to perform frequent and less costly fitness monitoring that will lead to more effective preventive medical care. Packaged in the shirt are dry ECG sensor technology, complex signal processing technology, a temperature sensor, motion sensor, an ultra-low-power microcontroller, and wireless electronics.
Clearbridge VitalSigns dry electrodes capture of the ECG waveform without requiring skin preparation or adhesives. This allows reading continuous clinical-grade ECG signals from the host wearer for extended periods of wear.
Maxim’s ultra-low power MAXQ622 microcontroller ,MAX8671 power-management IC, MAX6656 ultra-low-power temperature sensor and MAX3204 USB protector are design into the shirt. The shirt also integrates an accelerometer.
Filed Under: Sensor Tips, Microprocessors, ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL