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Wearable technology
equipment company Carolon and is currently planning to close its negotiations on a licensing deal.
By Davina Richards
It’s first ever product, a ‘smart sock’, which is able to measure pressure in a multi-layer compression bandage system for venous leg ulcers, is market-ready and once a partner is secured FHL plan to release the product in 2014.
Considering technology’s unending encroachment into every aspect of our lives it was always just a matter of time before fabrics smartened up – and that day has arrived. Not only is wearable technology taking on a visual lift and a snug look, tying it altogether is an Auckland-based technology company which has pioneered a smart fabric that is durable, safe, washable and comfortable. And its point of difference? It has the innovative ability to detect and monitor vital signs in the form of electrical signals; talk about a change in the smart textile technology landscape. Award winning chemist Simon McMaster and managing director Brent Ogilvie, co-founder and managing director of Pacific Channel Limited, founded Footfalls and Heartbeats Ltd (FHL) in 2010 to commercialise the technology and to be a hi-tech New Zealand based company which contributes to our knowledge economy. During the last 10 years Simon has dedicated his time to conducting academic research in the fields of chemistry, nanotechnology and textile technology, as well as working closely with world leading research groups and institutions.
20 May/June 2014 www.aucklandtoday.net.nz
It took one year to develop the smart sock but it wasn’t without its challenges. The company had to combine the craft of 450 years of knitting principles and electrical properties to get something reliable and durable, and repeatable in terms of knitting and signal.
Functionality, along with the diminishment of wires or straps for support, make the sensor technology one of a kind and a highly competitive product - a product which, although with an absence of an official brand name, is welcomed with open arms from many markets. The product was even used in a design prototype called the Revival Vest back in 2012 – a self-inflated life jacket which detects and responds to body changes for divers who black out under water. It won Victoria University industrial design graduate James McNab second equal placing in a global design competition run by the British-based James Dyson Foundation. The start-up company has been showcasing the product in UK, USA, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Germany, and beckons worldwide interest. FHL is looking to target global markets including, aged care, medical, protection equipment, fitness/sport and military, and there is also potential for the technology to be used to measure mechanical stress in
The company has done New Zealand proud in terms of Kiwi innovation and in 2013 was announced as a finalist for Innovation in Health and Science and won the Emerging New Zealand Innovator award at the New Zealand Innovators Awards.
satellites, aircraft wings, wind turbine blades, yacht hulls and high performance cars. Due to its implementation of nanotechnology and textile structure, it makes it ideal for people with health conditions and opens doors for remote and continuous monitoring, which enables individuals to track their own wellness. FHL has received research and development funding from the UK government and has already acquired significant capital to commercialise its fabric product. Last year, FHL signed a Letter of Intent with US medical
“We are delighted by the level of interest in our technology which has exciting potential in a range of sectors,” Brent says. “Footfalls and Heartbeats is an example of the growing number of high calibre and innovative companies being established in New Zealand that we are working with.” Simon McMaster, founding scientist of Footfalls & Heartbeats, was a panellist and speaker at the Wearable Technology Show 2014 at London’s Olympia Conference Centre and where Footfalls and Heartbeats exhibited its technology alongside other leading wearable technology. It was the biggest dedicated event for the fastest growing and most exciting sector of technology.