A German designer named Simone Schramm has come up with an innovative way for the fitness enthusiasts to display their gym progress. The Muscle Shirt will help you flaunt your fitness on the colourful display of your shirt. Here is an image showing the shirt in the inactive mode:
The Muscle Shirt changes shape by controlling the expansion or contraction of the wires woven into the fabric of the shirt. The multilayered Muscle Shirt identifies the heart rate of the wearer and pulls taut to reveal the second layer of the fabric underneath.
The contraction of the fabric will enhance the posture of the wearer as it adjusts to his form. The Muscle Shirt was developed during the previous year using an open-source hardware platform for that employs experimental prototyping via a software package named Qt.
As the heart rate rises, the stepper motor pulls the garment taut and reveals another layer of fabric which uses a color code to display the muscle groups in the upper body. The shirt can be customised to respond to the fitness activity of an individual by determining his level of fitness and then configuring the system to respond to a target heart rate.
Schramm left out the numerical display in The Muscle Shirt on purpose.
“The wearer can be overwhelmed by numbers and start to trust them too much.”
Her decision was also prompted by a report that revealed that a few fitness trackers become potential leaks for data when synced with the other devices.
“Through research, I’ve found that those who exercise really want to show their level of physical performance in pubic, so I decided to create this shirt as a way to communicate their activity visually, but without having to share their data in a public setting. If I were to make an app for the data collected by the shirt, I’d still want the user interface to be a color animation that corresponds to the body, and make it an intuitive experience.”
Schramm wants to add haptic feedback for information transmission in The Muscle Shirt. She believes that it would enable the wearer to focus on his movement during the workout.
“No one wants their stress-level public, or to feel like they’re being judged based on numbers. People should be able to hide that data whenever they like while still getting the workout they want.”
The design team is working on the incorporation of the waterproof circuitry into the muscle shirt. Schramm also wants to include the shape-memory alloy wires so that the muscle short would remember the physique and form of the wearer.
You can learn more about the shirt in this video: