Smart textile company Kymira has launched an early prototype of its cardiac monitoring t-shirt designed to lower the risk of heart attacks for athletes. The shirt wirelessly transmits a wearer’s heart rhythm to a mobile phone via Bluetooth, and, according to Kymira, can identify an unusual heart rhythm that could lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
Electrodes that are printed onto the shirt’s fabric feed into a processing unit that transmits the ECG data. Kymira’s algorithms in its mobile app process and clean the data to remove noise and signals created by movement to attempt to detect irregular heartbeats. Kymira expects hte shirt to be available to sports teams in March 2019 and to the public by the end of 2020.
“The possibilities this product offers both sportspeople and the general public is astonishing,” said Tim Brownstone, CEO and founder of Kymira, in a press release. “We envisage developing this product to be used for clinical applications to allow those who may already suffer with heart conditions enough warning of a heart attack.”
Kymira’s textiles also help regulate body temperature to improve a wearer’s athletic performance. Minerals embedded into the lightweight fabric capture energy produced by the body during exercise and re-emit that back as infrared energy into muscles. According to the company, this process increases circulation, increases tissue oxygen levels up to 20 percent, and provides pain relief to reduce post-exercise delayed onset muscle soreness.
SportTechie Takeaway
Kymira has previously designed an infrared clothing line for cyclists as well as infrared ski jackets and pants. The British Rowing Team has also used Kymira socks to help speed up muscle recovery time during and after workouts. While those products are more passive, the new shirt actively records data, inserting the company into the wearable tracking market that saw a near 22 percent year-over-year increase in 2018 according to industry analyst IDC.