Wanted: People who fart.
A “smart underwear” to measure human flatulence has been created by scientists from University of Maryland in the United States, and they are looking for volunteers to wear it.
The aim is to help scientists revisit longstanding assumptions about how often people actually fart.
It will also open a new window into measuring gut microbial metabolism in everyday life, the university said in a statement earlier in February.
Assistant Professor Brantley Hall, from the university’s department of cell biology and molecular genetics, led a team of researchers to develop the underwear which holds a device that tracks production of intestinal gases, such as hydrogen.
“Think of it like a continuous glucose monitor, but for intestinal gas,” Prof Hall said.
A 2025 study by another group of researchers found out that healthy adults fart an average of 32 times per day, roughly double previous estimates.
“We don’t actually know what normal flatus production looks like,” Prof Hall said. “Without that baseline, it’s hard to know when someone’s gas production is truly excessive.”
The project will use the smart underwear to measure flatulence patterns of participants and correlate those patterns with diet and microbiome composition.
The results will go towards the Human Flatus Atlas, which quantifies the dynamic range of intestinal gas production for a better understanding of gut health and the microbiome.
Prof Hall’s team are looking for volunteers who consume high fiber diets yet rarely pass gas, people who fart a lot, and those who fall between the two categories.