The Vital Jacket(R) is a wearable vital signs monitoring system joining textiles with microelectronics, mobility and patient needs.

Created by Biodevices, the tee-shirt-like device is an attempt to make continuous heart monitoring less visible and less bulky. While elderly patients are among its primary concerns, great potential for future fitness applications exist as well.

The Vital Jacket HWM mobile device is an intelligent wearable garment able to continuously monitor electrocardiogram (ECG) wave and Heart Rate for different fitness, high performance sports, security and medical applications. It was designed and developed to be a usable, pragmatic approach for different clinical and normal life scenarios, in hospitals, home or on the move, that need continuous or frequent high quality vital signs monitoring.

Currently, there are two versions, the HWM 100 that stores data on a SD memory-card for posterior analysis in a PC, and the HWM 200 that allows on-line, real-time visualization where data is sent via Bluetooth to a PDA or smart phone.

Both Vital Jacket versions are available for pre-order at $635.44 each via the VitalJacket website.

Biodevices.S.A. is a spin-off from IEETA (Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering of U of Aveiro). Located in Aveiro, Portugal, its mission is developing and commercializing biomedical solutions for diagnosis and monitoring support.

All its products are developed, tested and validated with partners working in specialized areas.

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