Microsoft ‘smart bra’ developed to curb emotional eating

Can't stop eating, ladies? Microsoft is here to help with its new "smart bra."

Embedded with physiological sensors, the brassiere revealed in a paper by Microsoft scientists this week would monitor a woman's heart activity to measure stress levels and combat emotional eating.

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The sensors can send an alert to the wearer's smartphone, which then flashes a warning to help the wearer step away from the fridge and make better diet decisions, CNN reported.

Soooo … what?

Microsoft says the aim was to find out if wearable technology could help prevent stress-related overeating.

"The bra form factor was ideal because it allowed us to collect (electrocardiogram data) near the heart," scientists said in the research paper.

The results were fairly impressive, with the bra predicting the emotional states of test wearers 75 percent of the time.

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Efforts to create a similar piece of underwear for men worked less well because the sensors were too far from the heart.

But Microsoft didn't rule out creating a male counterpart in the future.

The team's next challenge, according to their paper, is how to build a robust, real-world system that "stands up to everyday challenges with regards to battery life, comfortability and suitability for both men and women."