Is Smart Clothing the Future of Health Tracking?
The Future of Health Tracking: Smart Clothing Takes the Lead
Most health and fitness trackers today are designed as straps that wrap tightly around the wrist or body. However, recent research has uncovered a groundbreaking alternative: looser clothing can track movement with greater accuracy than traditional wearables.
According to findings published in the journal Nature Communications, loose fabric can predict and capture the body’s movements with 40% more accuracy and using 80% less data. This discovery challenges the long-held assumption that tight-fitting sensors are necessary for reliable health tracking.
How Traditional Wearables Work
Current wearables are designed to be snug against the skin, measuring raw movement and vital signs before converting them into metrics like steps, calories burned, or sleep stages. While these devices have been effective for basic activity tracking, they often fall short when it comes to capturing subtle or complex movements.
The research team from King’s College London has debunked the common belief that loose sensors produce "noisy" or unreliable data. In fact, their findings show that loose, flowing clothing can enhance motion tracking significantly.
“Meaning, we could move away from 'wearable tech' that feels like medical equipment and toward 'smart clothing'—like a simple button or pin on a dress—that tracks your health while you feel completely natural going about your day,” said Matthew Howard, co-author of the paper and reader in engineering at King’s College London.
He explained that when someone moves their arm, a loose sleeve doesn’t just sit there; it folds and moves, reacting more sensitively than a tighter-fitting sensor.
Testing the New Approach
The team at King’s College tested sensors on different fabrics, using both human and robot subjects performing a variety of movements. They compared the results from loose fabrics with standard motion sensors attached to straps and tight clothing. The fabric-based approach consistently detected movements more quickly, accurately, and with less data.
Importantly, the researchers found that sensor accuracy was not affected by its location in the clothes or the distance from where the fabric touches the body. This suggests that smart clothing could be designed with flexibility in mind, without compromising performance.
Benefits for Medical Monitoring
Sensors in looser clothes could also help detect small movements that current wearables often miss, such as Parkinson's tremors. “Through this approach, we could ‘amplify’ people’s movement, which will help capture them even when they are smaller than typical abled-bodied movements,” said Irene Di Giulio, co-author of the study at King’s College.
She added that this technology could allow tracking of individuals from their own homes or care homes while in their everyday clothing by adding the sensor to buttons on shirts. “It could become easier for doctors to monitor their patients, as well as medical researchers to gather vital data needed to inform our understanding of these conditions and develop new therapies, including wearable technologies that cater for these kinds of disabilities,” Di Giulio said.
Limitations of Current Trackers
While current wearables have proven useful for measuring steps and movement during exercise, they have limitations in clinical metrics such as heart rate variability, blood pressure, and oxygen levels. Recent research has shown that devices like Apple Watches accurately measure heartbeats at rest but show inconsistency and large errors in measuring energy expenditure—especially during activity.
This highlights the need for more advanced tracking solutions that can provide accurate, real-time health data without the discomfort of tight-fitting devices.
The Promise of Smart Clothing
The potential applications of this new technology are vast. From improving healthcare monitoring to making daily health tracking more comfortable and unobtrusive, smart clothing could revolutionize how we interact with wearable technology. As research continues, we may soon see a shift from medical-style wearables to stylish, functional garments that seamlessly integrate health tracking into our lives.
