Nextiles has released a new software development kit that will allow third parties to integrate the company’s technology with their own proprietary applications. Founded in 2018, Nextiles is a smart fabric startup that combines printed circuit boards with traditional fabrics to create articles of clothing that double as wearable devices.
The new SDK will allow interested customers to make better use of the data collected with a Nextiles wearable. To that end, they will be able to access the Nextiles platform and bring the data into their own applications, and can then analyze that data to develop new algorithms and optimize their own products and services. The SDK was built to be both modular and user-friendly, which is to say that it is compatible with virtually any backend application.
The Nextiles fabrics can detect changes in pressure, or determine when the fabric is being bent or stretched. That biomechanical information can then be sent to another device through a Bluetooth connection. Nextiles is also working on fabric sensors that will support biometrics like heart rate monitoring and sweat analysis.
According to Nextiles, its technology can be deployed in a number of different industries. Smart fabrics have obvious utility for athletes and fitness professionals, though they can ultimately be used in any industry that requires some degree of physical performance.
“Nextiles is focused on building the most comprehensive data capture platform for human movement,” said Nextiles Founder and CEO George Sun. “To do that, we needed to build this SDK, enabling software developers from any company to access our platform through industry-standard APIs.”
Of course, Nextiles is not the only company experimenting with smart fabric technology. Myant, a smart underwear startup based in Toronto, recently secured $1.5 million in government funding. Meanwhile, Apple has patented a fabric that can adjust the temperature to keep the wearer comfortable, and OMsignal has released a sports bra with an embedded biometric sensor.
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