Toray Industries to launch its new developed health-monitoring textile

Toray Industries Inc. is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered on technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry in cooperation with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp has developed new textile which will enable companies to monitor the health of their employees, it is capable of measuring a person’s biometric signals. The health care service will now be launched as early as next month.

The textile, called hitoe, is imbedded with wearable sensors that can record a person’s heart rate and electrocardiogram.

The synthetic fiber-maker envisions workers at construction sites or other workplaces with irregular work shifts as being potential users of the service.
It would enable their supervisors to receive a remote warning when the device detects worrying signs from an employee’s data.

Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku at a news conference in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Friday stressed the need to focus on the health care business to take advantage of the increased medical needs of Japan’s graying population.

They are going to strengthen the development and production of high-function, value-added textile products.

By offering the new service, including the management of the system to collate and evaluate the health data, Toray is aiming for ¥300 billion ($2.6 billion) in sales in health care-related business by fiscal 2020.