Virtual Personal Trainer Integrated In Smart Clothing Wins

Deutsche Telekom Fashion Fusion has spoken. The winner was Trainwear, a virtual personal trainer integrated in smart fitness clothing.

Supported by Intel, WIRED Germany, Adidas and Premium fashion fair #FASHIONTECH, Deutsche Telekom Fashion Fusion was all about designing relevant, functional, sustainable smart fashion with added value for the wearer.

Bo Zhou, Gernot Bahle and Lorenzo Fürg. The Teamwear team.

We wrote about the competition last year when the finalists were announced. The selected talent brought forward ideas within the fashion and tech space that included high-tech and couture. Their ideas were shaped in the Fashion Fusion Lab in Berlin, where the captives were given intensive support and coaching from industry experts.

ALSO READ: Fashion Fusion Finalists; Young Talent Making Visionary Ideas A Reality

As part of Berlin Fashion Week, Deutsche Telekom and the international Fashion Fusion Competition 2017 attracted 120 applicants from 25 countries. Twelve teams qualified for the final round. The combined total prize for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place was worth a total of 35,000 euros. The winning teams were:

  • 1st place (20,000 euros): Trainwear – a virtual personal trainer integrated in smart fitness clothing
  • 2nd place (10,000 euros): Mimeme – an augmented reality app that makes it possible to wear virtual clothes
  • 3rd place (5,000 euros): TranSwarm Entities – Maartje Dijkstra‘s haute tech couture performance stages 3D printing and drone technology for the catwalk

On the competition, Patron Claudia Nemat, Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom responsible for Technology and Innovation, shared, “This competition was an exciting experiment for us, in which Deutsche Telekom ventured into uncharted territory across business sectors. The diversity of the submitted projects exceeded our expectations by far. Digitization is currently revolutionizing the fashion industry and is also a major topic for us. We can provide secure connectivity for connected, smart fashion and thus be a strong partner for the large and small makers of smart fashion. I am therefore pleased that we will continue the competition in 2017 and go into the 2nd round.”

When it comes to the winners, meet Gernot Bahle, Bo Zhou and Lorenzo Fürg. They are the team behind the modular software system called Trainwear. Their idea introduced us to specially developed sensors (prototypes originally developed by the EU FET project SimpleSkin). These sensors were designed to be used on different parts of a person’s body while they performed various sports exercises.

Fashion Fusion
Fashion Fusion Winner Trainwear

Their role is to detect the pressure on textile surfaces. Easily integrated into a person’s clothing means the user, during training, can bring up the information collected – regarding breathing, muscle contraction, balance and pulse etc. as well as how well they perform the exercise on a pair of intelligent glasses or other end devices. The aim is to provide sport fans with detailed feedback regarding their performance – helping them to achieve their goals and correct any mistakes in their posture.

“Their smart training wear not only measures breathing, muscle tension, balance and pulse, it also provides feedback on the wearer’s posture and the correct performance of exercise moves.”

On their decision, jury member Christin Eisenschmid, Intel Vice President and Germany Country Manager said; “Wearables for monitoring personal physical values are already part of everyday life for athletes and fitness fanatics. The Trainwear team has added an exciting new component to this trend: Their smart training wear not only measures breathing, muscle tension, balance and pulse, it also provides feedback on the wearer’s posture and the correct performance of exercise moves. With their modular software system and specially developed sensors, Gernot Bahle, Bo Zhou and Lorenzo Fürg, in collaboration with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, have created the requirements for a “virtual personal trainer” which monitors, accompanies and supports the individual wearer while training. From the jury’s point of view: the user benefits are outstanding.”

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