Technology Bulletin: Commercially Available Smart Products Launched By The American Manufacturing Innovation Center

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the US government has proposed that the economy should turn to a sustainable growth mode and revitalize the manufacturing industry as an important means to stimulate economic growth. It will support the development of manufacturing industry, especially the advanced manufacturing industry, through the introduction of relevant policies, the construction of innovation networks for manufacturing industries, and the increase of investment in innovative basic elements.

Among them, the construction of the manufacturing innovation network (NNMI, renamed as Manufacturing USA in September 2016) is an entity that effectively carries out the direction of the innovation planning of the advanced manufacturing industry in the United States.

Its core is to solve the gap between basic scientific research and commercialized production in the process of pforming scientific and technological productive forces into commercial value.

At present, Manufacturing USA has established 14 innovation research institutes in different industrial technology fields.

Two of them are closely related to the textile industry, namely, the advanced composite manufacturing Innovation Research Institute (IACMI) and the advanced functional fabric manufacturing Innovation Research Institute (AFFOA).

The two innovative research institutes have incorporated high-performance fibers and their composites and intelligent textile materials and textiles into the advanced manufacturing industry innovation system of the United States, which fully demonstrates the broad prospects and value of advanced textile materials and textiles in aerospace, medical health and textile applications in the future.

Among its many research achievements, AFFOA has launched two commercially available products.

One is the first programmable smart backpack produced by JanSport, which has been commercially produced and its product name is LOOKs.

The backpack can set up the backpack function through the smart phone, scan the knapsack fabric through the mobile phone camera, identify different backpacks, get the information shared by the backpackers, so that students can better socialize on campus, and professors can participate in meetings more efficiently.

The smart fabric used in backpacks was developed by scientists from AFFOA, and jointly manufactured by JanSport and Inman Mills.

Another product is the world's first optical fiber based fabric communication system, "Fabric LiFi", developed by BostonEngineering.

The technology can broadcast the audio and other data directly to the photo-detecting fibers in the hat under the LED lighting system. The potential application areas include: receiving real-time comments in the sports events according to language and preferences, indoor high-precision positioning and navigation in the crucial locations of the GPS signal and the hospital navigation, and increasing the night time safety of the riding and running enthusiasts (avoiding collisions).