A New Way to Measure Stress
 The stress vest is designed to be lightweight to ensure the most accurate results. |
Developers are discovering a new way to measure the muscle tension and stress encompassing our bodies. By wearing a sensor riddled vest, tiny electrodes record how much strain our bodies are currently experiencing. Muscle strain and tension is often a direct reflection of how much stress someone is undergoing. Sensors are uniquely threaded through the fabric to register changes in the muscle fibers. When muscles become tense they produce slight electrical excitement. The metallic fibers then pick up the signals given off by the muscle and continue to send these signals to an electronic analysis system. Naturally, the greater amount of stress exuded, the stronger the signal, and more importantly the more dramatic the results.
The sensor vest idea was originally developed by biomedical scientists at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, because they needed a more discrete way to measure stress. This is a significant improvement on an older method because the older method requires direct electrodes placed on the subjects’ body subsequently producing stress and skewing results. By imbuing the electrodes into a vest, no further stress is created and can thus yield accurate results.
The stress vest can help to measure athlete’s limits and breaking points. It can help reduce the frequency of muscle injuries as well as help athletes understand their own physical potential. For workers doing a lot of heavy lifting, the vest can allow users to know what may be too heavy. While rheumatologists may suffer from lack of frequent patients, a better array of muscle health could occur if the stress vest were to become mainstream.
Developers are still configuring ways to make the vest foolproof. Water and perspiration resistance, as well as smaller buttons and sensors (to ensure comfort) are among some of the remaining kinks to work out. Another obstacle to tackle is making sure the electric conductors would not be damaged despite repeated laundry cycles.