Chronolife, a French AI company specializing in HealthTech, today announced the commercial launch of Nexkin, a groundbreaking washable smart t-shirt that monitors six key physiological parameters, including heart rate, breathing, temperature and activity.
The announcement follows two other big milestones for Paris-based Chronolife, which was founded in 2014. Not only has Nexkin received the CE (Conformité Européenne) mark certifying its safety and performance for sale in the EU, but it has also raised new funding from iBionext, Adrea and Celeste Management to boost its commercial and industrial phase.
The Nexkin platform uses cutting-edge wearable electronics to integrate 10 biometric scanners into a comfortable, machine-washable t-shirt capable of continuously tracking a user’s heart rate, abdominal and thoracic breathing, body temperature, physical activity, and pulmonary impedance. Data from the shirt is transmitted via Bluetooth to the user’s smartphone, where data from multiple sensors is integrated using Chronolife’s unique HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time Surfaces) algorithm to deliver accurate and actionable health insights. From here, data can subsequently be downloaded or transferred to secure servers for review by health professionals.
Comfortable enough for round-the-clock use, combining a 24-hour battery life and recharging in just a few hours, the t-shirt’s combination of AI-powered real-time analytics and next-generation wearable sensors has the potential to revolutionize many fields, including: aging-in-place senior care, chronic illness management, occupational health and safety, sports rehabilitation, military training, and performance management.
“The Nexkin T-shirt makes accurate, unobtrusive continuous health monitoring both affordable and convenient across a wide range of industries and functionalities, from pharmaceutical testing to senior care,” said Laurent Vandebrouck, CEO of Chronolife. “By combining wearable electronics with advanced AI-powered analytics, we’re delivering biometric monitoring capabilities that will revolutionize the way researchers and healthcare professionals interact with patients.”
Looking to the future, the commercial launch of Nexkin will allow Chronolife’s clients and partners to explore ways to deploy and test the technology in clinical and other settings, including healthcare organizations, insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies. With regards to global expansion, Nexkin shirt’s Bluetooth connectivity officially meets all U.S. regulatory requirements, having been approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this summer. Nexkin should also receive medical certification in Europe beginning 2020 and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the U.S. by the end of 2020.
“AI and wearable technologies are dramatically changing the healthcare and research sectors, and Chronolife is at the very forefront of that movement,” said Bernard Gilly of iBionext. “This commercial launch is just the beginning: the potential applications for the Nexkin T-shirt are almost endless.”
