Design Research Lab are the ones behind what they call the Knit Alarm, which is a re-imagining of traditional medical alarms that relies on contemporary materials instead. In order to trigger a “call for help”, one needs to either stretch the sensor that has been woven into the left cuff, or to simply touch the upper chest with your wrist. These sensors will most probably be conductive thread if we can make a safe assumption, and they are knit directly into the cardigan itself.
The knit cardigan relies on Bluetooth connectivity to hook up to a smartphone that will then initiate a phone call to a pre-selected contact. There will also be a set of LEDs that light up to let you know that the alarm itself has been triggered. Sounds cool, but the question of whether this is practical or not remains to be answered. A cardigan as a medium for a medical alert? Perhaps it would be better to come in the form of a kit that you can use with any other forms of clothing.
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