Nextiles, the New York start-up combining traditional sewing techniques with printed circuit boards to create smart fabrics, is launching a newly designed software development kit (SDK) that will provide users with access to its software platform and to leverage its novel human movement analytics to build custom algorithms and partner-specific metrics.

Through its patent-protected manufacturing process, Nextiles smart fabrics allow for complete biomechanic and biometric sensing. Industries such as sleep, sports and performance and fitness are now able to partner with Nextiles to capture human movement data seamlessly via Bluetooth, and create proprietary machine learning algorithms to augment their own existing platforms.

Nextiles has developed smart thread technology to capture biometric and biomechanical data through flexible material and helps its partners build custom backends, which produce novel insights from manufactured soft goods.

The fabric is made by blending metallic fibres with traditional fabrics, such as nylon or spandex, to produce pressure, bend and stretch sensors embedded within garments.

Nextiles is also creating biometric fabric sensors for heart-rate monitoring and chemical analysis such as sweat. When combined with traditional sensors such as accelerometers and other Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), it is possible to create a holistic, novel data picture for clients spanning an array of industries.

“Instead of taking a one-app fits all approach, Nextiles is focused on building the most comprehensive data capture platform for human movement,” said CEO George Sun. “To do that, we needed to build this SDK, enabling software developers from any company to access our platform through industry-standard application programmining interfaces (APIs). We’ve spent years optimising the material science to build our soft goods othrough our patent-protected sewing technology. Now, any software developer will be able to access our data analytics with this SDK.”

Once the SDK is integrated into a partner’s app, companies will be able to deploy Nextiles sensors specific to their customers’ needs and in a variety of use cases. By capturing these novel datasets, partners are able to build proprietary algorithms for each use case and personalise insights through machine learning. From biomechanics in sports, to biometrics such as EMG sensing and heart rate, Nextiles has developed a modular platform and can plug into any existing backend with its newly launched SDK.

“We have been perfecting our technology with professional athletes for over a year now and have seen heavy demand for our data capture solutions in almost every other industry,” said John Peters, chief business officer at Nextiles. “We know that if this technology can work at the highest levels of sport, we can seamlessly power other data capture experiences in a variety of verticals centered around human movement – sleep, women’s health and connected fitness are all industries we’re finding early success in. This SDK, coupled with our material science and software expertise, offers a holistic solution for our partners to capture, digest, and further build custom algorithms they can own and monetize within their ecosystems.”

www.nextiles.tech