Microsoft bra might help battle stress, emotional overeating

It’s certainly no Xbox One, but a product prototype by Microsoft was attempting to battle emotional overeating.

A smart bra, or at the very least, a sensor that goes in a woman’s bra was tested to see if it could help women make wiser eating choices.

According to CNET, the bra is embedded with “electrocardiogram and electrodermal activity sensors” as well as a “gyroscope and accelerometer.”

Microsoft research manager with the Visualization and Interaction Research Group, Mary Czerwinski, has been studying how technology can help detect and help people deal with stress.

It’s a concept that’s not too far off – there are already smart bracelets that act as pedometers or read your sleep cycles and send that information to your smart phone.

Researchers believe if the women can see when they’re stressed, they will be able to make healthier choices instead of overeating.

In this case, testers of the Microsoft prototype wear the removable sensor in their bra.

Data collected from the bra sensors is sent to a smartphone app so the women could track their moods, but also sent to the researchers who were able to see whether the women were stressed based on the collected signals.

Microsoft is no longer working on the project. Its biggest problem was the battery life: the bra sensor only lasts about four hours at a time

And while Czerwinski told Discovery News emotional-overeating is mostly a problem within women, they’re not ignoring the benefits a program like this could have for men.

Unfortunately, when the researchers attempted to create a similar garment in the form of men’s underwear, the location of the sensor was too far from the heart to be effective.