Research at FAST

13 Impact Stories Contemporary Design for Wearable Electronic Fashion The inception of wearable technology, functionality, durability and convenience have been major challenges to market acceptance. To overcome these challenges, pioneering highly multidisciplinary research by Prof. Xiaoming Tao and Dr Li Li is revolutionizing the traditional definition of wearable electronics and improving users’ experience. Bringing wearable technology to the public, this team has developed a super-fine electronic fabric with soft electronic circuits. Compared to current rigid, bulky and inconvenient wearable electronic fabrics, this has superior handle, lightness, softness, elasticity and appearance, and it can be used daily. This technology also offers an Making Sizing Easy and Portable with AI Online shopping is flourishing but up to 30% of products sold online are returned, incurring substantial costs. The main reason for return is incorrect size fit. To solve this issue, Dr Tracy Mok and Dr Shuaiyin Zhu have developed a mobile app that can accurately take body measurements within seconds simply through 1 or 2 photos. The app integrates cutting-edge AI and 3D technology to help vendors recommend the right sizes significantly enhancing the online fashion shopping experience and saving time and money. This technology won a Silver Medal at the 1 st Asia Exhibition of Inventions Hong Kong in 2018. With PolyU support, Dr Zhu founded TOZI Technology Ltd., a Shenzhen based start-up to commercialize the technology. With investment from FOSUN international and ITOCHU, TOZI is growing rapidly and now offers solutions and services to many local and global fashion companies, including Esquel Group and Shima Seiki. An Innovative Tank-Top with Biofeedback System for Adolescents with Early Scoliosis Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) affects 2-3% of children between 10 and 16, with higher prevalence in females. It is estimated that 10% of AIS cases may require medical intervention, such as patients with spinal curvature greater than 20º. To mitigate scoliosis severity, Dr Joanne Yip has developed an innovative body-mapping tank-top equipped with a biofeedback system for adolescents with early scoliosis. This device aims to progressively provide muscle training to scoliosis patients and so restore balance in muscle activity and reduce spinal displacement. It has been licensed to a PolyU spin-off company aiming to develop posture training systems for medical, sports and healthcare applications. WiseEye: An Intelligent Fabric Defect Detection System Overview efficient design method for guiding the industrialization and commercialization of wearable textiles and has been successfully licensed to large-scale companies. 3 innovative start-up companies with over 100 employees have been established. Additionally, this technology is shortlisted for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and was adopted at the Vivian Tam Special Show 2018. Our research guides designers, manufacturers and procurers to improve wearable designs and create life improving products. Numerous fabric structures with multiple texture variations and defects severely hinder automatic fabric defect detection. “WiseEye”, an intelligent fabric defect detection system developed by Prof. Calvin Wong and his team leverages advanced technologies including AI and Deep Learning to meeting the industry needs and is a significant milestone in textile manufacturing automated quality control. This system inspects woven plain fabrics with over 92% detection accuracy, minimizing production of substandard fabric and thus substantially reducing loss and wastage. This saves manpower by enhancing automated textile manufacturing management. Supported by AI-based machine-vision technology, "WiseEye" can be installed in a weaving machine to instantly detect defects in production. Production line managers can now easily identify the cause of problems and fix them immediately. "WiseEye" has been successfully licensed to a large-scale textile manufacturing company.