Smart Underpants: A New “Brief” In Health Monitoring
5 July 2021
Rumor has it that underwear is getting a lot more interesting these days.
In fact, your undergarments are actually getting smarter, thanks to AI innovation in the e-textile industry.
Myant Inc., a leading innovation hub for wearables, has developed smart underwear that could become one of the most reliable and effective ways to detect and prevent health issues. The underwear current includes biometric sensors that measure things like sleep quality, activity, stress level, temperature, and electrocardiography (ECG)*.

As consumers wear the underwear, sensors in Myant’s SKIIN brand fabric send data back to a corresponding app. Myant’s platform analyzes the data, provides guidance on lifestyle changes, and allows users to share information with healthcare providers.
Underwear is a good choice for a smart garment because it makes consistent, close contact with the body – a must-have for continuous skin sensors.
Myant’s underwear innovations fit into the larger trend of e-textiles and smart clothing, powered by artificial intelligence and tiny semiconductor technology. Scientists are replacing clunky health monitoring devices like watches and chest straps with comfortable smart garments.
Health providers and developers believe advances like these will increase compliance and lead to better healthcare outcomes.
What Can Smart Garments Do?
Fiber technology works by embedding sensors directly into textiles (kind of like weaving additional yarn into an existing piece of fabric) or by applying sensors to the top of the fabric. Either way, the garment needs to have direct contact with your skin as it’s being worn.
The use cases for e-textiles go far beyond just health monitoring. Smart garments are being developed to do things like:
- Diagnose comfort levels of amputees by monitoring the interaction between them and their artificial limb.
- Assess patterns in athletes’ performance, and deliver small electric shocks to underperforming muscles
- Wake up sleepy drivers on the road before accidents occur, with built-in fatigue monitoring
- Temporarily disable couples’ smartphones so they can focus on spending time together
- Connect to smart home systems, to do things like change the thermostat when your body is cold (or hot)
- Measure hand function in patients who have neurological disorders
- Improve the safety of firefighters and other first responders during emergencies by monitoring heart rate and body temperature
The Future of Smart Clothing
The number of potential applications and markets for e-textiles is vast, including military and space, automotive, haptic suits for virtual reality, sports and fitness, and assistive clothing.
IDTechEx's latest report on this emerging market, "E-textiles and Smart Clothing 2020-2030: Technologies, Markets and Players", predicts that the industry will be worth over $1.4 billion by 2030.
As this industry grows and companies figure out how to incorporate this advanced technology into their products and bring them to market, your favorite article of clothing might just be a pair of smart underpants that remind you when to take your insulin or grab a glass of water.
Related Articles
The 7 Most Successful Business Models Of The Digital Era
The first two decades of this century are characterized by digital entrepreneurs upending traditional business models in search of new ways of creating revenue and serving customers.[...]
Unleashing the Power Of AI: 14 More Mind-Blowing Tools Beyond ChatGPT
AI is still the hottest topic in tech due to the massive success of ChatGPT, now thought to have the fastest-growing user base of any application in history.[...]
The Top 4 Examples Of How ChatGPT Can Be Used In Telecom
The telecom industry has experienced a lot of change and challenges in recent years, and with that comes a need for more efficient and effective communication systems.[...]
ChatGPT: What Are Hallucinations And Why Are They A Problem For AI Systems
In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to the rise of sophisticated language models, with OpenAI's ChatGPT at the forefront[...]
Top 10 Use Cases For ChatGPT In The Banking Industry
Banks have often been at the forefront of adopting cutting-edge technology to provide better customer service and meet compliance requirements.[...]
The 7 Best Examples Of How ChatGPT Can Be Used In Human Resources (HR)
Human Resources (HR) departments play a critical role in managing an organization's most valuable asset — its people.[...]
Stay up-to-date
- Get updates straight to your inbox
- Join my 1 million newsletter subscribers
- Never miss any new content
Social Media