14 DAY TRIAL // Good news for all the men out there: technology giant Philips has conceived a life-saving device with a twist - aimed to help men all over the world get their blood pressure under control and constantly monitor the state of artery walls throughout the body - and decided to get a little help from the fashion world in order to camouflage their new invention. As a result, they turned the monitoring device into... that's right, a pair of "smart underpants" complete with four sensors in the waistband which pick up data on how fast blood is flowing through arteries. The information would be gathered on a small monitor and downloaded into doctors' computers for analysis.
They may make men look like a more modern version of Batman or Superman (you know, the shiny pants worn over tights) but the concept of "wearable health" is a growing phenomenon that is here to stay. A growing number of technology manufacturers are considering taking a more fashion-prone approach to health monitoring and are keen to use textiles and various types of clothes for this purpose to make the technology more user-friendly and accessible. The smart pants are not the only such initiative in the making - the University of Bolton in the UK is working on a bra that detects breast cancer and an Italian firm called Smartex has designed a T-shirt that includes a built-in heart-rate monitor.
The smart pants provide a discrete way to monitor a patient's heart rate and blood pressure as he goes about his normal, day to day activities. As doctors explain it, when a patient visits the doctor for a routine checkup, it often happens that he gets stressed and his blood pressure goes up - which prevents doctors from getting an accurate reading of his normal blood pressure. These pants are worn for a whole day and monitor a patient's vital signs during various activities such as walking, jogging or resting. So, boys, keep an eye out for the ultimate fashionable health-monitoring gadgets and get a pair once they're out.