HIGH-TECH BRA COULD BE YOUR NEXT DOCTOR.

To find out all you need to know about your body's vital signs, all you need to do is to get dressed.

The burgeoning market for intelligent clothing that can measure stats including your heart and respiratory rate has resulted in a broad range of wearables which could one-day act simultaneously as an on-call doctor.

"[People] can be monitored 24/7 and not have to be in hospital to do it," says Bennet Fisher, of CircuiteX, the smart fabrics arm of Noble Biomaterials. "The data collected ... can provide a general profile of a person's health."

It's all about silver

The technology is based on the use of conductive yarns -- most commonly made with silver -- which are woven into fabrics to act as sensors that detect electrical signals, acting as electrocardiograms (ECGs) and electromyograms (EMGs) to measure heart rate and muscle activity respectively.

The silver can either be woven in throughout a piece of clothing or else through tapes or patches sewn into specific regions.

"You can put it in any close-fitting garment," says Andy Baker, CEO of SmartLife, whose t-shirts and sports bra are set to launch in September 2015. The closer the sensor to the skin, the better the signal detected.

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Signals are then transmitted to detectors -- in the form of apps on a smartphone or tablet -- easily carried by the wearer. The information collected can also be uploaded to the cloud or sent to a third party, such as a doctor. Baker thinks this line of clothing could revolutionize medical practices.

"We could put a t-shirt on 20 people in a ward and a clinician can walk in with an i-Pad and see all 20 heart rates," says Baker. The rules of medical approval mean such an application is still a few years away, but Smartlife is targeting medical use by 2017. "We don't want to diagnose, just collect and share the data as they wish," adds Baker.