KaHa, a Singapore-based end-to-end smart wearable IoT platform company, has launched a concept smart wearable body and wellness-monitoring T-shirt prototype developed in partnership with SIMTech. KaHa has been working alongside SIMTech technology and supply chain partner for the research institute’s latest Collaborative Industry Project (CIP) on Smart Apparel Innovation. This CIP program, focusing on Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE), aims to accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies to tap the huge potential of smart wearable electronics and promises to help enhance the local smart wearable manufacturing ecosystem The t-shirt is considered to be in a prototype stage that promises to capture body vitals and transmits it to a detachable Smart Module.
According to the company, the global apparel market currently stands at US$3.6 billion (S$4.4 billion), and the latest IDTechEx report forecasts the global wearable tech market to reach US$160 billion by 2025. Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative is acclaimed to develop key pillars of growth, with wearable tech being one of them.
The smart apparel prototype was showcased to over 200 attendees at the CIP’s Kick-off Seminar for the second batch of CIP participants. The event is attended by garment manufacturers for international brands, companies from the electronics, consumer lifestyle, healthcare, hand tools, apparel, textile and fashion industries. The first batch of 10 CIP participating companies started in February 2018.
Co-developed by KaHa and SIMTech, the smart apparel prototype has printed Flexible Hybrid Electronics which claims to capture body vitals and transmits it to a detachable Smart Module on the apparel. The module cleans the data, which is then shared with KaHa’s IoT platform to be analysed. It monitors heart rate and automatically alerts users when their individual maximum prescribed heart rate reaches 80 per cent.
