This Spider-Man Shirt Can Detect Parkinson’s Disease, Body Movements

A Japanese startup has developed a shirt resembling a Spider-Man outfit —the black kind — that’s capable of not only tracking body movements, but also detecting Parkinson’s disease.

Nikkei Asian Review learned Thursday that Tokyo-based startup Xenoma — a spinoff from the University of Tokyo — has developed a shirt that has clothlike sensor-equipped circuit all over it. These sensors are there to track the wearer’s body movements.

The high-tech garment was made in collaboration with fashion brand Hugo Boss. It is actually a smart golf clothing designed to primarily gauge golf swings of its wearers. Users of this sportswear can analyze their performance based on the information sent to their phones or PC by the small Bluetooth device on the chest area of the shirt.

Interestingly, Xenoma is looking to have its shirt used in the medical field, especially in preventive care. This coming March and April, the Japanese startup will work with Germany’s University of Duisburg-Essen to conduct experiments in order for the shirt to be capable of monitoring electrocardiograms and other health data of dementia patients. They also intend to use the shirt in detecing the presence of Parkinson’s disease by identifying changes in the wearer’s manner of walking.

The Japanese startup also wants to collaborate with other partners, so it could establish the use of its e-shirt in other fields such as gaming. The biometric is already equipped with acceleration and gyroscope sensors, so it could really have a potential use in virtual reality gaming.

There are whole-body and upper-body varieties of this new technology. However, both versions come with Spider-Man-like lines traversing the arms and the torso. These lines do not at all limit movement. Instead, they serve the purpose of determining the force that the wearer exerts on different parts of the body. Check out Xenoma’s e-shirt here.

Despite its sophisticated design, the Spider-Man costume-looking e-apparel is comfortable to wear due to the fact that it is largely made of polyester. It is also highly durable and machine-washable, which is surprising considering that Xenoma’s shirt is partly a device.

Xenoma CEO Ichiro Amimori explained that the smart clothing utilizes an advanced electronic circuit developed by University of Tokyo professor Takao Someya. The clothlike circuit is insulated, so it can be protected from sweat and washing.