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The Smart Shirt System offers a host of advantages over existing monitoring systems. Consumer experiences with infant apnea monitors represent one effective case study of these advantages. Numerous infant monitors currently exist on the market, but possess serious drawbacks that create countless frustrations for their users. Parents grow quite resentful towards the equipment over time due to the constraints on mobility and the lengthy setup times. The bands, electrodes, and wires running to the processor constantly create an awareness of the device, altering the degree of "natural" interaction between parent and child.
Furthermore, there is the threat of the infant becoming entangled in these components. False alarms or failure to alarm are another shortcoming of apnea monitors currently on the market. If the infant performs shallow breathing using more of the abdomen, the lack of movement in the chest often sets the alarms off. Other commonly reported problems involve wires running from the electrodes to the monitors becoming loosened by the infants' movement during sleep, causing the monitoring system to fail altogether. Movement from an outside source can also cause the apnea monitors to misdiagnose the infant's breathing.
A device that can overcome the deficiencies presented by the current selection of monitoring devices has the potential to significantly penetrate the infant monitoring market. We believe that the Smart Shirt has that potential, reducing the complications and hazards of loose wires and offering the ability to accurately process signals and read the infant's condition with a minimal false or failure alarm rate.
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