Most wearable sensors available today are limited to picking up health data such as heart rate readings or measuring breathing, but the wearable sensor company BeBop Sensors Inc. is promising something much greater. With the launch of its first product, the BeBop Wearable Smart Fabric Sensor, the company claims its ultra-thin wearable sensor will measure all aspects of physicality, including motion, rotation, bending, pressure, angle, torque, and location.
The BeBop sensor technology was created after developing smart fabric sensors for musical instruments at Keith McMillen Instruments (KMI). With increased demand and applications for the technology, KMI created BeBop Sensors Inc. to service a new customer base.
The BeBop fabric sensor connected to a smartphone for data collection.
“BeBop is a natural step for KMI, where we have diligently tuned fabrics, geometries, and production processes allowing us to ship over 1 million sensors to some of the most demanding musicians in the world,” said Keith McMillen, founder of KMI and BeBop Sensors. “All musical instruments are essentially sensors with forms of acoustic processing attached. The same care and creativity used to build our instruments will serve well for our non-musical customers as we expand into the wearables market.”
BeBop is also now offering custom turnkey sensor solutions for original equipment manufacturers to incorporate into their products, which range from basic sensors to complete wireless solutions.
Obviously, the flexibility of the new smart fabric sensors opens doors to quite a few possibilities. You could have smart insoles to track your running style and pace, or baseball gloves that can help perfect your swing. BeBop sees uses in everything from wearable controllers to smart yoga mats in order to improve your poses.
As of right now the company is just providing the basic technology and no finished products, so you won’t be seeing any of this smart cloth in something you can buy just yet. Although it may take a little while, there’s certainly a lot of potential. One day you’ll be able to measure you activities without wearing a bulky wristband.
Story via deskeng.com.
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