Boxers or Briefs?

Have you tried out one of those automatic blood pressure monitoring machines? The ones in which you insert you entire arm and it starts squeezing until your hand goes numb. Well, it seems as though the life of those machines will soon come to an end.

Philips has just applied for a patent to develop blood-pressure sensing underpants – yes, you read that correctly, underpants!

The underpants come equipped with sensors that measure the electrical impedance of the tissue beneath it. A pair of such sensors can calculate the speed of the pulse wave by timing how long it takes to travel from one sensor to the other.

Dino wasn’t able to obtain too much information about this, but assumes that the sensors will also include a wireless feature that would allow you to transfer the readings to an online log (for monitoring and analysis) or directly to your doctor, keeping you safe at all times. It may even have an alarm that sounds if your blood pressure rises too rapidly.

It’s quite an odd invention – Dino wonders if Philips would collaborate with a garment company such as CK to distribute this, and the different colors that would be available. What about laundry, would the sensors be water resistant? Would it be safe to have a wireless transmitter so close to your…you know what.

Dino will keep you posted once more information is available. Meanwhile, you may want to check out a previous post about an ice shirt that helps you cool down in the summer.