If the thought of jogging with a robot isn’t enough excitement to get you off the couch, then how about shorts that grip your undercarriage to report on the performance your quadriceps, hamstring and gluteus muscles?
That’s one futuristic vision for Finnish company Myontec, which is marketing underwear embedded with sensors that measure your muscle activity, the New York Times Magazine reports in its 32 Innovations that Will Change Your Tomorrow.
For now, the high-tech spandex – essentially a wearable muscle monitor that sends data to a computer for analysis – is marketed to athletes and coaches, but “they could be useful for the deskbound,” notes the magazine.
If the shorts tell you, for example, that your muscles have been inactive for days on end, perhaps you’ll be motivated to get that Joggobot and go for a run.
The clothing technology was recently used for a study that addressed the question of whether exercising regularly reduces the amount of time we spend sitting down, which is bad for our health regardless of how fit we are.
Unfortunately, the team found that exercise for fitness does not decrease the inactivity time during the normal day – which is about 70 percent.
“Because of this, it is extremely important to pay attention to the amount of exercise and to reduce the amount of sitting,” concludes a press release on the study.
For more innovative ideas for the future, be sure to check out the article in the New York Times Magazine.
-- Via New York Times
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website and follow him on Twitter. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
