Patent ID: 7725152

Claim:
A system for monitoring at least one predetermined physiological parameter of a wearer, comprising: a garment, at least a portion of which garment is formed from a fabric having a first side defining an exterior surface and having a second side defining a wearer-contacting interior surface when said garment is worn by the wearer, wherein the fabric comprises a first plurality of reflective yarns knitted or woven with a second plurality of stretchable yarns, wherein each reflective yarn has a coating of an electrically conductive material thereon and each stretchable yarn is formed as a combination of a covered elastic yarn and a hard yarn, said fabric having a region thereof defining gaps of a first size between yarns when said fabric is stretched and defining gaps of a second size between yarns that is different from said first size when the fabric recovers from stretch; at least one source of radiation having wavelength(s) in the range from about 400 to about 2200 nanometers positioned external to the fabric to direct radiation onto the exterior surface and onto the region; at least one detector responsive to incident radiation having wavelength(s) in the range from about 400 to about 2200 nanometers, to produce a signal representative thereof, with said detector mounted to either the first side or the second side of the fabric and external to the fabric, wherein the source and detector are associated with the fabric in substantially fixed relative positions with respect to the region such that the reception of incident radiation by the detector at a first time interval when the fabric is stretched as compared to the reception of incident radiation by the detector at a second time interval when the fabric recovers from stretch is directly affected by a change in the amount of light reflected by yarns or transmitted through the gaps as the fabric of the region periodically stretches and recovers from stretch in response to at least one predetermined physiological parameter of the wearer of the garment; and a signal processor that converts periodically varying signal output received from the detector or from a data acquisition unit associated with the detector into a signal representative of the at least one predetermined physiological parameter of the wearer of the garment.