Wearable technology company BeBop Sensors, Inc., created by musical instrument inventor Keith McMillen and his company Keith McMillen Instruments (KMI), unveiled its first product, the BeBop wearable smart fabric sensor. The ultra-thin fabric measures motion, bend, location, angle, rotation and torque, and can be applicable to the development of products including apparel, protective wear, footwear and athletic equipment.
While other sensors are limited to measuring electrical conductivity and physiology, the company said its smart fabric is able to measure real-time X/Y location, bend, force, stretch and motion, all on a 3D data map. The technology incorporates BeBop’s Monolithic Fabric Sensors, which integrates sensors, traces and electronics into a single piece of fabric to provide greater sensitivity, resolution, range of deployment and robustness, all within a tiny sensor.
BeBop and KMI founder McMillen said, “Bebop is a natural step for KMI, where we have diligently tuned fabrics, geometries, and production processes allowing us to ship over one million sensors to some of the most demanding musicians in the world. All musical instruments are essentially sensors without forms of acoustic processing attached. The same care and creativity used to build our instruments will serve well for our non-musical customers as we expand into the wearables market.”
McMillen added, “Good designs get the job done, great designs strive for an elegance and simplicity that will make the integration of wearable computing a seamless part of everyday life.”
Bebop is currently offering turnkey sensor solutions for OEMs to incorporate into their products.