According to a research carried out by University of Portsmouth, every 1 out of 5 woman doesn’t work out due to the problems pertaining to their breasts. These problems include pain or too much breast-bounce causing embarrassment and also the inability to find the right sports bra. Hence 20% of women miss out on the health advantages of exercise. In this post we will introduce a gadget that aims fixing this number; Bionic Bra. It is capable of adjusting to breast movements quickly and thus providing more or less (depending upon the situation) support in accordance with the woman’s need.
The development of this bra has been going on for around the last 15 years at the University of Wollongong (UOW) located in Australia. The research team has been working on the problems related to the sports bra and breast movement during physical activities. As per the team, the technology has now caught up with their vision and allowed them to make use of smart yarn and components that are intelligent to create a sports bra which is comfortable while also being responsive.
Director of Breast Research Australia (BRA) at UOW, Professor Julie Steele, said, “We were inspired to make a bra that could respond to the needs of women – to tighten up when there is a need for more breast support but to relax when additional support is not required, so women could enjoy the health benefits associated with an active lifestyle in comfort. Advances in materials science that enabled advanced sensing and actuating technologies with soft materials, means we are in a unique position to tackle this problem.”
The Bionic Bra comes equipped with innovative materials capable of sensing and even contains the customized and recently developed fibers that have been created by using wet spinning techniques. These fibers are ‘knit’ to create a structure that is wearable and the components capable of sensing when the woman’s breasts begin moving more or faster for that matter, such as when the female stands up and begins running to catch a bus.
Professor Gordon Wallace, Executive Research Director of the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Electro-materials Science in UOW, explained, “The advent of approaches such as 3D printing has enabled us to assemble structures containing new sensing technologies to more accurately monitor movement and new artificial muscle technologies to control it.”
The Bionic Bra is in its prototype phase now and frankly looks a bit bulky as of now. However, now that the proof of its concept has been delivered, designers will be taken on board the team to help come up with a final design – one which is aesthetically pleasing too. Let’s see how that turns out and how the designers will solve the issue of washing it. The Bionic Bra debuted at the Opening Keynote Address of the 9th Australasian Biomechanics Conference. We would like our readers to respond in the comments section and let us know if they find it feasible or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjBLyZwYxdc
