PoloTech, Ralph Lauren and OMsignal‘s smart shirts, will be available for sale this week. Like the partnership between Intel and Opening Ceremony, this represents the fashion mainstreaming of wearable technology.
The shirt has embedded silver fibers to track heart rate, heart variability, breathing depth and recovery, intensity of movement, energy output, stress levels, steps taken, and calories burned. One must also wear a “black box” device to receive the sensor data and to capture activity information.
The data is then transmitted to an iOS app, which offers cardio, agility and strength workouts, live fitness monitoring, and exertion and effort ratings. The sensor data adapts the app’s workouts to the wearer’s performance in real time.