FuelWear makes shirt with built-in heating

A group of students from the University of Toronto have come up with a shirt with built-in heating. The shirt can provide extra warmth to the wearer if his or her body cools down due to the ambient temperature. The group has already raised enough money for production.

The group of students has united under the name FuelWear and plans to deliver the shirt in December to those who have made a financial contribution through Indiegogo. A shirt can be bought there for 150 Canadian dollars, converted just over 100 euros. Additional batteries can also be purchased.

Due to the built-in heating elements, the shirt, which bears the name Flame Base Layer, can provide heating. Sensors are built in that measure the wearer’s body temperature, so that the shirt knows how much it needs to heat up. The body temperature can be heated by a maximum of 10 degrees Celsius, but then the built-in battery only lasts 3 hours. If 5 degrees has to be heated, the battery life is six hours and with 2.5 degrees of heating it is double. A battery indicator is built in and there is also a button to manually adjust the heating.

According to FuelWear, the heating shirt can simply be washed in the washing machine. Sensitive components such as the sensors and batteries are sufficiently shielded, according to the makers. In addition, the heating is automatically turned off if the shirt gets too wet; this also applies to rain or excessive sweating.

Clothing seems to be getting more and more attention from tech companies and tinkerers. For example, someone recently made a t-shirt on which you can play Tetris and Intel is working on a ‘smart shirt’ with various sensors.