Icelandic technology company developing smart underwear for Incontinence is looking for partner in Eurostars project

Short summary Icelandic technology company developing smart underwear for male urinary incontinence. The intelligent garment consists of underwear pants with embedded electrodes and Electromyography Sensor: EMG sensors that will collect data from muscular function during pelvic-floor muscle exercises. Potential partner should have a know-how in relation to intelligent textiles and wearable's with focusing on med-tech.

Full description The company was established in 2018 with the goal of building non-invasive solution to increase positive outcome of rehabilitation process for male with urinary incontinence. After many trials and errors, it occurred that intelligent shorts are the best choice to track performance of patient during pelvic floor muscles exercises. The company's main focus right now is the development of said shorts. The company consists of three people, CEO, CFO, and CTO. In 2020, the company received a grant from the Icelandic government which kickstarted the development and a lot of work has been put into developing a prototype as well as defining the brand. The product under development consists of three modules: shorts with embedded EMG electrodes and sensors, electronic module that collects and sends data from sensors to the phone application (aka Control Unit), and phone application that uses data to create real time biofeedback. The prototyping of the electronic module and the phone application is in progress and is far along. But in our company, we lack expertise in design, production, managing the supply chain of necessary components, method for approaching the market and textiles design for the shorts that will contain conductors, and embedded electrodes for EMG sensors. On the subject the team has some research questions: - What is the optimal material and layout of the shorts to fit the necessary sensors in correct places, apply the necessary pressure that the EMG electrodes require, and fit comfortably for different bodies? - How can the EMG sensors be made small enough to fit within the material of the shorts without discomfort of the user? - How can smart threads be fitted within the shorts to transmit signal from sensors to a central electronic module? - How can the assembly of the shorts be optimised? How many and which manufacturers are needed? How will the product be delivered to end customers? - The project would be to answer these questions one by one and with it, design a prototype of the shorts as well as realise the supply chain of the product. Expected results and impact With the design of the shorts in place the MVP can be built by connecting Control Unit with the shorts and mobile phone application. We hope to have a pair of shorts that fits different people with working sensors and data collection which we can use to test on human subjects and further advance the design and development of the product. With the supply chain in place the manufacturer of the device will be selected. Expected end-users The end user is a person that goes through rehabilitation process of urinal incontinence. Depends on the needs. How the work will be done Wearapeutics will be a project coordinator and will be focusing on testing ideas, and prototypes with the combination of equipment already developed – Control Unit and phone application. For others there is a freedom of how they want to perform their part of the project in cooperation with Wearapeutics. Give a very short description of the partner sought, including e.g: A university, physiotherapists, SME, or research institute with the know-how about urinary incontinence, EMG measurements, smart garment and/or data analysis. A manufacturer with the know-how of manufacturing and supply chain of smart wearables.

Advantages and innovations The propose device fills the gap in the incontinence treatment during the time when patient needs to perform home therapy. Right now, physiotherapist does not have access to the patient exercise data and thus does not see patient progress until they come back for a visit. Patient cannot asses their own performance since it lacks knowledge and professional feedback. Wearapeutics fills that gap with proposed solution that allows patient and physiotherapist to get real time biofeedback and data. There is a possibility for online consultation during which patient can wear mentioned device and get help from physiotherapist without leaving their home. Technical Specification or Expertise Sought The company needs expertise in design, production, managing the supply chain of necessary components, method for approaching the market and textiles design for the shorts that will contain conductors, and embedded electrodes for EMG sensors.

Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)