Most wearable biosensor technology stories involve wrist-worn or handheld technology, but Swanholm Technology AB‘s Connected Safety Vest is much larger. Originally developed to aid truck driver safety, potential applications for Swanholm’s AI-driven vest extend to a wide range of workplace and outdoor applications as well as remote patient monitoring (RPM), presence tracking, and fall detection.
The Connect Safety Vest has two primary functions: illumination and fall detection. Swanholm mounts a Bosch BMI-160 inertial measurement unit (IMU) accelerometer and gyroscope sensor chip on the nape of the vest’s neck. The sensor controls printed lights on the vest that light up in the direction of the wearer’s movement to illuminate the path and any obstacles. The sensors also detect falls using an algorithm that registers a fall when it senses slight change in motion with a subsequent extremely short duration of what reads as weightlessness, followed by an abrupt change in acceleration. When a fall happens, the lights on the vest begin to flash rapidly to alert anyone in the area. The sensor then sends the location to a list of emergency contacts stored in an app on a Bluetooth-connected smartphone. There’s also a button on the vest the wearer can use to alert contacts directly when lost, stuck, or in trouble.
We’ve written about workplace wearables such as proximity alerts to inform wearer to dangerous locations, a smart patch that monitors body temperature, and AR-powered wearables that inform wearers about threats or emergency procedures in specific areas. Workplace safety tech development won’t always migrate to at-home applications, but the transition for the Connected Safety Vest is a win.
