Therapeutic 'smart' fabric garment including support hose, body garments, and athletic wear

摘要

Athletic and sports wear, and medical or therapeutic garments (G1-G8), all made from a “smart” fabric. The fabric is woven from, or incorporates, one or more components that allows the fabric to change size or shape, project heat or cooling to a part of the wearer's body, to monitor body vital signs such as temperature and pulse rate, etc. The fabric can be used in a garment covering only part of a patient's body, or substantially all of the body. Besides targeting specific areas of a body for treatment, garments made from the fabric facilitate zonal treatments; that is, areas of the body that require therapy but in which certain portions of the area require different levels or intensity of treatment than others. A variety of materials and their various capabilities are disclosed.