Scataglini1, A. P. Moorhead2, F. Feletti3,4
1 Department of Product Development, Faculty of Design Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano University, Milan, Italy
3 Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Ausl Romagna, S. Maria delle Croci Hospital, Ravenna, Italy
4 Department of Electronics Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano University, Milan, Italy
SUMMARY
Background. Traditional monitoring of athletes during sports has long been hampered by bulky, complicated and tethered systems. In the past decade, this has changed due to the miniaturization of sensors and improvement of systems to store and transmit data. These systems have been integrated into textiles to create ‘smart clothing’ which has been so ubiquitous that a review of the recent literature is crucial for understanding its full poten- tial and potential use in extreme sports. Methods. An electronic data base search was performed from 2003 to April 2019 for full length articles including “Smart” AND “Clothing” OR “Clothing” AND “Sport(s)” written in English with human subjects. Articles were evaluated according to the Newcas- tle-Ottawa Scale. Results. Twenty-four studies resulted in 18 systems comprised of 22 types of clothing with various capabilities, including: monitoring heart rate, electromyography, respiratory rate, steps, GPS, energy expenditure, posture, body temperature and identifying the activity. Conclusions. Many types of smart clothing from socks and gloves, to pants, shirts and bras are increasingly utilized to monitor sports activity worldwide and gather previously unavailable, yet highly valuable data. This provides a unique opportunity to study athletes during training and competition, potentially providing more effective training and better safety protocols.
KEY WORDS
Smart, clothing, sensorized, textiles, sport, extreme.