Scientists create smart underwear that tracks your gas – and yes, it’s serious research

Scientists have developed the world’s first smart underwear designed to measure human flatulence, offering researchers a new way to track gut microbial metabolism in real-world settings.

In 2000, gastroenterologist Michael Levitt expressed how it is "virtually impossible" for physicians to track "the existence of excessive gas using currently available tests".

But now, Brantley Hall, assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at UMD, has developed a wearable device to track hydrogen, which could revolutionise research going forward.

The smart underwear is a rechargeable coin-sized device that attaches to underwear and sends data to a phone app via Bluetooth.

Brantley Hall, University of Maryland

Hall is now launching the Human Flatus Atlas, a study that tests the smart underwear to track flatulence patterns across hundreds of participants in the US. The project aims to help researchers link gas production trends with diet and microbiome composition.

The results of the Human Flatus Atlas will help to establish the normal range of flatus for people in the United States over the age of 18.

The study will include three groups: individuals who consume high-fibre diets and produce minimal flatus, those who experience excessive gas, and a "normal" group whose symptoms fall between these two main categories.

"We've learned a tremendous amount about which microbes live in the gut, but less about what they're actually doing at any given moment," Hall said. "The Human Flatus Atlas will establish objective baselines for gut microbial fermentation, which is essential groundwork for evaluating how dietary, probiotic or prebiotic interventions change microbiome activity."

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