Montreal startup OMsignal has officially launched its new collection of Biometric Smartwear, comprised of four smart shirts for men. OM shirts monitor activity, physiological stress and fitness levels.
It’s the latest addition to a Canadian wearable tech space that seems to be growing stronger every month. Several other companies like Bionym, Kiwi Wearables, Thalmic Labs and more all offer tech consumer wearable products that help people keep track of everything from health and fitness to sleep to body temperature.
With OMsignal’s new offerings, each of the four shirts include health sensors embedded into the fabric that measure a user’s biometric data in real-time, relaying the information to a personal dashboard on the OMsignal app. The app then translates the users’ unique bio-signal into personal, actionable insights. It gives people messages about their bodies, so they can improve how to manage health and meet fitness goals.
CEO Stéphane Marceau said since we’ve been wearing clothing all our lives, it’s the most natural and therefore the ultimate ‘wearable’ medium. “Clothing has always been about protection and fashion, but it will now also help motivate us to better ourselves every day,” said the CEO. “You would never drive a car without a speedometer, RPM or a fuel gauge, right? Well, with OM, you now get a dashboard to better steer your life, to increase your self-mastery, to push your fitness performance, and live a healthier lifestyle.”
The OMsignal shirts will come in four different male styles, including an under-shirt, a sleeveless shirt, casual T-shirt and long-sleeved shirt. Each style tracks your body’s most important biometric data and vital signs including heart rate, breathing rate, breathing volume, movement (including steps and cadence), movement intensity, heart rate variability and calories burned.
The shirts are high-quality compression garments and are designed to be moisture wicking, odor-resistant (anti-microbial) and “seamlessly tailored” for comfort and stretch. The health sensors are embedded into the fabric in order to gather readings at multiple touch-points, knitted close to the heart to capture “a robust electrocardiogram (ECG) reading,” which deliver heart rate (BPM) and heart rate variability (HRV). These measurements can provide an accurate method of calculating the number of calories burned, as well as physiological stress-level.
“Exercise physiology research has defined human performance through intricate lab studies, but the technologies researchers use were never available for everyday and the aspiring athlete,” said CMO Dr. Jesse Slade Shantz, also an Orthopedic Surgeon. “You could never bring hospital or lab-type equipment with you on the court or track. OMsignal now makes it easy to track biometrics in real time, in real life and during sports activity. At OMsignal we’ve focused on giving consumers quality insights on performance, taking the research a step further to guide users to their peak performance.”