I like to consider myself a sport-techy. You see, I run anywhere from 3-10 miles per day so once the handset OEMs started making smart watches that could replace my heart-rate monitor and integrate running apps into said devices I was all for it! I rocked the first Samsung Gear, Gear 2 and now the LG G Watch with Android Wear (using RunKeeper right now). At the same time I’ve gone thru 3 UP bracelets (for sleep tracking) so when I saw the announcement of the Hexoskin I was more than intrigued. I like how Hexoskin urges users to put down the baggage of bracelets, bands, chest straps and other fitness trackers and get the data that matters…
Based in the Great White North, the Hexoskin smart shirt was developed with help from both the Canadian Space Agency and NASA to make some crazy-small textile sensors all over the shirt. Hexoskin claims that the shirt will record more than 3000 data points per minute. Seems a rather large step forward from the couple sensors and data points in all my other gizmos!
Hexoskin will measure heart rate, step count, sleep duration and calories burned, it also measures heart rate recovery, heart rate variability, breathing rate (good one), breathing volume (interesting), activity level, acceleration, cadence (I like this one) and more. After a workout I would assume one would want to wash the shirt because it can then be worn to bed to track the users’ duration of sleep and movement (hmmm) plus sleep positions, cardiac and respiratory activity (just to confirm I have sleep apnea).
What to do with all this data? Well, as expected the Hexoskin has an embedded Bluetooth transmitter to enable syncing with the Hexoskin app for iOS and Android, plus the company offers an online dashboard.
Overall, it seems like a pretty bad ass piece of clothing! I just wonder how it will hold up to the normal wear, tear, and stink that all my running shirts endure? If The Daily Game gets a review unit, umm, shirt we’ll post all of our embarrassing health metrics.
Hexoskin is available in both men’s (small to 3X) and women’s (x-small to XL) styles starting at $399 on Hexoskin.com. For more information on Hexoskin, visit them at www.hexoskin.com.