High-tech has never been so fashionable
Some 30 floors above Toronto’s streets, a select group of people caught a glimpse of the future.
The future is smart, with technology no longer limited to phones in pockets or watches on wrists, but branching out to the fabric of clothing.
At a news conference this week promoting this summer’s Apparel Textile Sourcing Canada conference, a few insiders showed off the latest wares, a meeting of tech and textiles. Some of the items are on the market, but many aren’t yet.
Justine Decaens, a project leader with CTT Group from Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., showed off a self-heating coat. Inside are six heating elements. Those elements are made of a conductive fabric and when the coat is connected to a power source — like a battery in a pocket — they heat up. That allows for less down in the coat, making for a slimmer look, Decaens said.
Her company works with others that come armed with an idea; together they develop a prototype. “Once the prototype is functional and it meets all the criteria the client has, we transfer how to produce it to them and they produce it.”
Nearby, Marie Brouillet, business development director at Vestechpro, a Montreal-based nonprofit, showed off the sensors in a shirt, named Hexoskin, that capture heart rate, breathing rate, even acceleration. Those sensors are connected to a tiny computer, about half the size of a business card, that beams out the information to an app on a smartphone or tablet.
The Hexoskin is on the market and sells for a cool $399, Brouillet said. They’re hot sellers, she added.
She then picked up a pair of insoles made by Greybox, another Montreal company. They have pressure sensors connected to a device that also transmits data to an app. But it’s not for athletes or weekend warriors, she said. Rather, they are made for seniors, especially those recovering from an injury or surgery.
The information captured can be analyzed by doctors and physiotherapists to see if patients are performing their exercises properly, she said.
Some of the insoles are out there now being used by medical professionals, and the information is also being sent to researchers at McGill University.