Bionic Bra Offers Futuristic Support to Active Females [VIDEO]

I love sports gear.

It makes the activities that I love that much more lovable. To ski in comfort, play basketball with well protected feet, skate on a board that reacts, and protect my head, elbows and other parts of my body make the things that I want to do doable.

I don't have breasts, but if I did, you can be darn sure I'd do what I had to do to protect them.

A professor at the University of Wollongong and his team are developing what they call the 'Bionic Bra'. The support garment uses a 'smart yarn' that reacts to movement to offer more support during more strenuous activities. The effort to create this bra has been happening for more than a decade, and is in reaction to the fact that for sports bras to be effective, they are often found to be uncomfortable. When they began this process, the technology to create it didn't exist.

“Our ability to make things from advanced materials has been greatly enhanced recently with the advent of new approaches to fabrication. The advent of approaches such as 3D printing has enabled us to assemble structures containing new sensing technologies to more accurately monitor movement and new artificial muscle technologies to control it. These advances have inspired us to (re)confront the challenges involved in creating the Bionic Bra,"

That was professor Gordon Wallace speaking about the brassiere he and his team are working to develop.

The technology is supposed to mimic actual muscle that responds to activity levels, and levels of strenuousness.

It's not out yet, but the prototype was presented at the 9th Annual Australasian Biomechanics Conference.