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Wearable technology is getting a turbo boost from silver.
You see, sports and technology companies have already developed wristbands, shoe inserts, and smartphone apps that can track your heart rate, distance covered, and several other data points.
But now a Canadian company is collaborating with a global fashion powerhouse to take this market to a whole new level – with silver.
Silver's Role in Wearable Technology
At the 2014 U.S. Open Tennis Championship in New York, the Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) introduced the Polo Tech Shirt. The clothing behemoth bills this as the first offering of apparel that tracks and streams real-time biometric data directly to your smartphone or tablet.
During the tennis challenge, ball boys and girls got to wear and display the new shirts, containing biosensing silver fibers woven right into the stretch nylon fabric.
What makes this shirt tick? The high conductivity properties of silver.
The silver fibers track distance, calories burned, intensity of movement, heart rate, stress rate, breathing, and a host of other biometric data.
It's pretty revolutionary to the nascent "smart clothing" industry, and silver is clearly an integral part of it.
And a Canadian company is supplying the technology side of this high-tech T-shirt.
Wearable Tech's Fast-Growing Sportswear Focus
OMSignals is trail-blazing a path in the emerging biometrics sportswear industry.
The company is responsible for developing, producing, and marketing such clothing tailored for athletes and others partaking in intense fitness programs.
A "Little Black Box" data module, about the size of a car remote, clips onto the shirt just below chest level. Through the use of low-power Bluetooth LE, the unit captures heart and breathing signals, and records and streams continuous real-time biometric data wirelessly to the wearer's phone or other device.
OM's form-fitting shirts and tank tops are produced with moisture wicking fibers. This allows the wearer to stay comfortable and drier while working out.
About the Author
Peter Krauth is the Resource Specialist for Money Map Press and has contributed some of the most popular and highly regarded investing articles on Money Morning. Peter is headquartered in resource-rich Canada, but he travels around the world to dig up the very best profit opportunity, whether it's in gold, silver, oil, coal, or even potash.