A group of British universities is beginning a three-year project to develop technology-enabled clothing for the elderly. It’s being billed as a meeting of textiles, electronics and healthcare.

The project is more about exploring the possible marriages of technology and clothing, but one of the ideas already under examination is to produce clothing with a built-in heart rate monitor which triggers an alarm to either relatives or medical personnel when the heart rate drops below a particular point.

Another potential project is clothing which includes a thermostat linked wirelessly to the home heating system, which will then adjust as necessary. The logic is that it makes more sense to adjust the temperature to the individual (particularly for those who live alone) rather than the building.

There’s even talk of some form of clothing which includes electronic links to information such as bus timetables. Part of the research is to find out whether clothing is a more effective way of getting such information to people who would be wary of standalone gadgets or computers.

The obvious problem not covered in the official publicity for the project is the economics and logistics of the fact that people don’t wear the same clothes every day.

As well as exploring how clothing can carry technology, those involved say that technology could improve clothing itself. Jane McCann (pictured), the project manager, said, “Little has been done to address the design requirements of older wearers in terms of human factors such as sizing, fit, predominant posture, thermal regulation, moisture management, protection and the psychological ‘feel good factor’.”

Those involved in the project might want to raid the reality TV archives. Back in 2005, an episode of NBC’s The Apprentice involved the contestants attempting to produce “wearable technology.” However, the teams simply adapted existing clothing to provide customized pockets to hold popular gadgets securely rather than fully integrating the devices.

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Entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 4:32 pm under Technology.

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