能够拯救人性命的内裤?

Engineering student Thomas McGilvray is wearing the latest in men's underwear. The briefs are comfortable, durable and he thinks, stylish. But unlike most underpants, these briefs could one day save Thomas's life.

Printed onto the waistband, so it's in constant contact with the skin, is an electronic biosensor,design to measure blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs.The technology, developed by nano-engineering professor Joseph Wang and his team, breaks new ground in the field of intelligent textiles. Their method is similar to conventional screen-printing, although the ink contains carbon electrodes.

"It's important to mix it well, so the quality would be good."

The project is being funded by the US Military. American troops, thousands of whom have been killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, are likely to be the first recipients.

"This specific project involves monitoring the injury of soldiers during battlefield surgery and the goal is to develop minimally invasive sensors that can locate, in the field, and identify the type of injury."

Ultimately, the biosensor that detects an injury, will also be able to direct the release of drugs to relieve pain and even treat the wound. But the technology's range of application goes beyond the military.

"We envision all the trend of personalized medicine like elderly at home for remote monitoring can, monitoring a wide range of by biomedical markers for cardiac markers, alerting for any stroke,potential stroke, diabetic changes and other changes related to any biomedical scenario."

Wearable biosensors can also provide valuable information to athletes, or even measure blood alcohol levels.

"The idea would be to have your textile monitor the actual blood-alcohol content that's correlated with the perspiration."