Toray, a leading fibre manufacturer company in Japan, in cooperation with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, has come up with an innovative textile that is capable of monitoring the health of people, and in this case, company employees. This was revealed by the company’s president Akihiro Nikkaku.
Speaking at press conference in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture on Friday, Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku said, “We are going to strengthen the development and production of high-function, value-added textile products.” He also stressed that the new textile would focus on the graying population in Japan.
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The textile, called ‘hitoe’, is embedded with wearable sensors that can record a person’s heart rate and electrocardiogram. The synthetic fibre-maker envisions the new textile useful for construction site workers or workplaces with irregular shifts. It would enable their supervisors to receive a remote warning when the device detects worrying signals from an employee.
Earlier, Toray has also worked on health-enhancing fibres that contain ingredients that protect the skin. Toray via this newly developed textiles aims for ¥300 billion ($2.6 billion) in sales in healthcare-related business by fiscal 2020.
