The recent links between textile-industry and biomedical one already gave birth to numerous applications. The use of clothes as a "second skin" between our body and the external world makes easier a more simple survey of potentially risky people in their natural surroundings, due to captors part of the clothes and wireless transmission.

The example  of the " BBA" clothes - bootee and body- for example allows to look after breath, heart rythm and movement of a baby in the common life. It then shows the potential of these self-survey technologies.

The important role of the bootee.

Sometimes nothing makes you aware of the baby sudden-death, but in other cases the danger is clearly identified and makes the survey of vital functions compulsory. Generally this survey occurs in hospitals. Different captors are installed on the child and kinked through wires to a computer which analyses and starts an alarm. This classic device impedes the child's moves and limits its relations with nurses and family, delays the coming back home and in some cases seriously alters the relation with parents.

Research efforts have been made to lessen this especially by weaving captors into the clothes and using wireless transmission towards the survey-center.The BBA bootee created by TAM telesante integrates an accelerometer  ( which gives informations about the baby's moves)  and survey captors looking after breath and cardiac rythm . This "clever" bootee weighs 46 GRAMS. It is composed of a washable part, several sizes adaptable fastenings on the fore-foot and the ankle so that the captors are well set against the skin. In the sole a movable box receoves and transmits the informations.

Only on "clever"bootee linked to one foot and a normal one on the other is enough to insure an efficient survey. The small weight of the system is a major advantage for the baby and the use at home. Different studies ( Aix en Provence, Rouen, Limoges, Nice, Marseille, Lyon) testing the datas of a classic monitorings and those of the BBA bootee validated its efficiency.

Hôpitaux magazine 07/2007