Microsoft Developing 'Smart Bra' to Reduce Emotional Overeating

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 5 (UPI) —
Microsoft is working on a smart bra with sensors to monitor a wearer’s mood and trigger a smartphone app to reduce emotional overeating, U.S. researchers said.

Alerts from the wearable technology would be constantly refined by user feedback, enabling the bra to improve its ability to read a specific person’s feelings, InformationWeek reported Thursday.

Microsoft researchers worked with the University of Rochester and Britain’s University of Southampton on the project, attempting to associate emotions with poor eating habits and to determine whether wearable devices can help reduce the resulting weight gains.

A wearable smart bra was chosen primarily because it allows sensors to be placed near the heart, the researchers said, but follow-up research is intended to yield more gender-neutral devices such as bracelets.

To establish a link between a person’s emotional state and the likelihood they would overeat, participants in a study were asked to record their emotions and eating patterns with a smartphone app.

Those who reported they felt stressed, upset or bored were most likely to eat outside of regular meals, the researcher found.

Microsoft said the smart bra is part of its ongoing research into possible uses for wearable technology and it has no plans to make it into a commercial product.