News

The intelligent wearable technology developed by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University garnered attention at the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition: An Eminent Textile and Fabric Exhibition

Organized by the China National Textile Industry Council, in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology Development of the China National Textile Industry Council and the Textile Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the "New Technology Innovation Space" exhibition area made its debut at the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition: An Eminent Textile and Fabric Exhibition. The "New Technology Innovation Space" covered an area of 225 square meters and featured 11 domestic universities, 14 teams, the National Advanced Functional Fiber Innovation Center, and 10 key enterprises showcasing their innovations. The exhibition area focused on the theme of "Smart Creation, Intelligent Textiles" and showcased the achievements of China's research in the field of smart textiles in recent years, presenting the latest results in areas such as "Intelligent Sports," "Smart Protection," and "Smart Healthcare and Wellness." During the visit to the exhibition area, Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile Industry Council, Wang Tiankai, former President of the China National Textile Industry Council, Xu Kunyuan, former Vice President of the China National Textile Industry Council, Cao Xuejun, Chief Inspector of the Consumer Goods Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Yu Jianyong, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Donghua University, Chen Weikang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the China National Textile Industry Council, and Vice Presidents Xu Yingxin, Li Lingshen, and Yan Yan visited the exhibition area. Sun Ruizhe expressed that these innovative products and technologies not only represent the latest achievements in textile science and technology but also provide guidance for the future development of the industry. Professor Tao Xiaoming's team from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University showcased several intelligent textile technologies and innovative products, including a textile electronic interactive system, customized medical compression stockings with a smart bionic morphing leg mannequin for pressure assessment, an intelligent sports recovery wearable system, a limb gauge measurement system, an intelligent wearable system for Parkinson's disease assistance, and environmentally friendly antibacterial materials. The textile electronic interactive system seamlessly integrates visual, auditory, and tactile perception methods with fabric structures. It can be used in healthcare and medical fields, smart homes, interactive entertainment, and other applications. The customized medical compression stockings with a smart bionic morphing leg mannequin are based on key parameters extracted from three-dimensional human body scanning data. They utilize self-designed CAD/CIM technology to provide patients with enhanced comfort and improved compliance with the use of medical compression stockings. The intelligent sports recovery wearable system is a portable, intelligent, and personalized wearable system that can switch between temperatures ranging from 5°C to 40°C within 10 seconds. The system ensures uniform temperature distribution and applies pressure, allowing athletes to quickly recover during breaks of competitions and improve their performance. The limb gauge measurement system can continuously measure joint angles and changes in skeletal muscle thickness in real-time. Combined with a biomechanical model, it can estimate the contraction force of athletes' skeletal muscles during exercise, making it applicable in the fields of rehabilitation and sports training. The intelligent wearable system for Parkinson's disease assistance can accurately identify abnormal gait patterns in real-time and provide timely prompts, effectively enhancing the mobility of Parkinson's disease patients and improving their quality of life. Yuan Gang Flex Sensor Achieves Breakthrough in Men's Health Management Yuan Gang (Guangzhou) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., dedicated to intelligent wearable medical devices, has achieved accurate collection and analysis of human physiological parameters to provide users with precise health management data and auxiliary diagnostic basis. The company showcased its first product, the "Flex Sensor," which adopts cutting-edge "flexible textile strain sensors" and utilizes artificial intelligence algorithms and data analysis engines to monitor real-time and long-term physiological parameters in men. This product enables remote home monitoring, and it is comfortable to wear, accurate in data, easy to use, and cost-effective. Doctors can formulate personalized treatment plans based on the analyzed monitoring data, making it a significant innovative breakthrough in the field of men's health management. Intelligent Health Technology Introduces Smart Yoga Pants Guangzhou Zhikang Technology Development Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise that integrates the research, design, and production of intelligent wearable products. The company's professional research and development team consists of senior professionals from fields such as materials, sensing technology, rehabilitation medicine, and software development. With the support of independently innovated core technology in flexible large-strain textile sensing, after three years of product development, they have launched innovative patented products, namely the "Smart Breathing Belt" and "Smart Yoga Pants." These products achieve real-time visualization of breathing training data, allowing for real-time face-to-face and remote guidance, as well as self-practice and correction. They significantly enhance the quality and efficiency of various sports and rehabilitation training, making training more scientific. Ecolar Technology Exhibits Safe and Environmentally Friendly Antibacterial Materials Ecolar Technology Co., Ltd., a Hong Kong Polytechnic University incubator enterprise, showcased safe and environmentally friendly antibacterial materials based on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). These materials are fully biodegradable, non-toxic, and have a kill rate of over 99.99% against S. Aureus, K. pneumoniae, C. albicans and Methicillin-resistant S. aureus, the COVID-19 virus, the H1N1, and H3N2 viruses. They can be used as finishing agents for medical and sanitary products, clothing, and household textiles. Compared to commercially available antibacterial agents, this new PHAs material has significant advantages in terms of biocompatibility, biodegradability, stability, low carbon emissions, and cost-effectiveness, bringing people a greener, healthier, and safer lifestyle.    

Interview of IWEAR team led by Prof. Xiaoming Tao and Prof. Margaret Mak on Now TV: Introducing a Wearable Device to Aid Parkinson's Patients in Overcoming Walking Difficulties

Prof. Xiaoming TAO and Prof. Margaret MAK of IWEAR were invited by Now TV to discuss a groundbreaking wearable device designed to assist Parkinson's patients in overcoming walking difficulties. The complete interview can be viewed by clicking on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C_2vWZdaPA  

IWEAR hosted the annual retreat

The Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) successfully hosted the retreat event on 29th January 2024, with active participation from 22 IWEAR members across 9 various departments. The annual event of team building featured three engaging presentations, a panel discussion, and a result sharing session. The retreat started with self-introduction of all the attendees. Prof. Lily Li, Associate Director of PAIR gave an opening remark. Then Prof. Feng YAN, Associate Director of RI-IWEAR (Research) reported the research progress of IWEAR from May 2022 to April 2023. Prof. Zijian ZHENG, Associate Director of RI-IWEAR (External Liaison) presented the external liaison activities conducted by RI-IWEAR in the period. Prof. Xiaoming TAO, the Director of RI-IWEAR summarized the major achievements and outlined the plan for the next phase of operation. The afternoon session featured a panel discussion centered around three themes: Funding Opportunities and Collaboration Topics, Funding Opportunities and Assistance from IWEAR, and Collaboration Topics and Assistance from IWEAR. The panel discussions served as a platform for productive exchanges of ideas and fostered collaborative opportunities. The retreat event was a resounding success, enabling IWEAR members to share their knowledge and experiences. RI-IWEAR remains committed to build a leading research centre of the area by fostering interdisciplinary research collaboration.    

Dr Shou Dahua hosts and chairs the 13th China Textile Academic Annual Congress - Young Scholar Symposium

In November 2023, Dr Shou Dahua, Limin Endowed Young Scholar in Advanced Textiles Technologies, hosted the 13th China Textile Academic Annual Congress · Young Scholar Symposium on behalf of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The China Textile Academic Annual Congress is an authoritative platform for high-end academic exchange, recognition of high-level innovative talents, and publication of excellent scientific research achievements, constructed by the China Textile Engineering Society. It has been selected multiple times for the "Guide to Key Academic Conferences" directory by the China Association for Science and Technology and has built a professional academic conference system encompassing main venues, thematic sub-venues, special forums, awards recognition, and exhibitions since its inception in 2011, successfully holding 12 congresses.   The symposium focused on promoting cutting-edge technology exchange and transformation in the fields of textile health, intelligence, and sports, attracting nearly 200 young scholars, doctors, entrepreneurs, and representatives. Mr Fu Guangwei, Chairman of the China Textile Engineering Society, Director of the China National Textile and Apparel Council Testing Center, and Chairman of the National Textile Fabric Museum, delivered the opening speech, while Professor Erin Cho, Dean of School of Fashion and Textiles at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, welcomed the attendees. Mr Guan Haibo, Director of the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan Affairs Office at the China Science and Technology Exchange Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology, made the keynote report. Representatives from institutions such as Harvard University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Southeast University, Donghua University, Jiangnan University, Qingdao University, Anhui University of Technology, and companies like ASICS (China), Shengze Junior Chamber, Purcotton, 361 Degrees, Bananaunder, Xiangbu Textile Technology, etc., gathered together. They deeply discussed opportunities for cooperation in joint R&D, integration and transformation, and shared creation and utilization around "intelligent wearables, new healthcare materials, and green sustainability". The symposium not only strengthened industry-university-research cooperation but also opened a new chapter for interdisciplinary collaborative development. The keynote speeches were chaired by Dr Shou Dahua from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Dr Ding Ye, founder of Yrobot and a PhD of Harvard University. Speakers including Associate Professor Liu Yulei from Peking University, Professor Chen Peining from Fudan University, Chief Physician Huang Chenyu from Tsinghua University, Professor Zhao Dongliang from Southeast University, Dr Ding Ye from Harvard University, Professor You Zhengwei from Donghua University, Sun Yuting, Head of Apparel R&D at ASICS (China) Commerce Ltd., and Dr Shou Dahua gave their respective presentations, introducing the latest advancements and application transformations in areas such as intelligent wearables and advanced textile technologies, clinical practice of sports medicine and textile engineering, fabric display devices and integrated systems, mechanotherapy, thermal and moisture management fabrics, smart wearable robots, bionic elastomer fiber devices, and high-performance fiber sports apparel. On-site, participants and speakers engaged in several rounds of enthusiastic and in-depth interaction, sharing their professional knowledge and experiences.  

IWEAR hosted the PAIR Conference with theme of Intelligent Wearable Systems.

The Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) hosted the PAIR Conference on 10 May 2023, with theme of Intelligent Wearable Systems. The conference was attended by experts, researchers, and professionals from various fields. The whole conference featured talks by eight speakers' presentation, two panel discussion, and one poster presentaion section.   The first speaker, Prof. Dinggang SHEN, founding dean from the School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, presented on the topic of Fast Development and Deployment of AI Techniques for Real Medical Applications. The second speaker, Prof. Feng YAN, ADoRI of IWEAR and Chair Professor of Organic Electronics from Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, presented on the topic of Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Sensing Applications. The thrid speaker, Prof. Yang CHAI, Associate Dean of Faculty of Science and Professor of Department of Applied Physics, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University presented on the topic of Retina-inspired Vision Sensors. The fourth speaker, Dr Xinge YU, Associate Professor of Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, presented on the topic of Intelligent Skin Electronics for Healthcare Monitoring and XR. The fifth speaker, Prof. ZHENG Zijian, ADoRI of IWEAR and Chair Professor of Soft Materials and Devices of Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, presented on the topic of Textile Composite Electrodes for Extreme-Flexible Batteries and Beyond. The sixth speaker, Prof. Robert YOUNG, Professor of Polymer Science and Technology, Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, presented on top of Multifunctional Nanocomposites: Achievements and Prospects. The seventh speaker, Dr Lin SHU, Senior Engineer of Associate Head, School of Future Technology, South China University of Technology, presented on topic of Research and Application of Wearable Physiological and Psychological Computing Technology. The eighth speaker, Prof. Wei ZENG, Professor of Institute of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, presented on topic of Ionic Thermoelectric Generator with a Giant Output Power Density and High Energy Density Enabled by Synergy of Thermodiffusion and Redox-pair Transfer Effect.   After the experts' sharing on the theme of Intelligent Wearable Systems, Dr Olga BUBNOVA, Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, presented on topic of Publishing in Nature Portfolio – from Nature Research journals to Nature Reviews journals. After, the other panel discussion on the topic pf Challenges and Opportunities of Intelligent Wearable Systems was held, with Prof. Feng YAN, Prof. Wei ZENG, and Dr Lin SHU as main speakers and Prof. Xiaoming TAO as moderator. At the end of the conference, there was the poster presentation section. Overall, the conference was a great success, providing a platform for experts and researchers to share their knowledge and experiences on intelligent wearable systems. The Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems will continue to organise similar events in the future, to continue promoting research and development in the field.    

Research on In-sensor Computing was Published in Nature Nanotechnology

Prof. Yang CHAI, a member of RI-IWEAR, collaborated with the researchers at Yonsei University in Korea and published an article entitled “Optoelectronic graded neurons for bioinspired in-sensor motion perception” in Nature Nanotechnology.    The motion perception by conventional machine vision usually occupies abundant computation resources, which greatly restricts its application at edge terminals. To perceive the dynamic motion at sensory terminals, it demands the hardware that can conduct visual processing in a more efficient way. Flying insects can agilely detect the motion with a tiny visual system (~800 photoreceptors and 10^5 neurons in the brain), which inspires us to emulate the characteristics with hardware devices for in-sensor motion perception.   One of the reasons for the agile visual system of flying insect is its graded neural structure, which exhibits much higher information transmission rate (>1000 bit/s) than that of spiking neuron (~300 bit/s) and allows to fuse spatiotemporal information at sensory terminals. Prof. Chai’s team adopted MoS2 phototransistor to emulate the non-spiking graded neurons of insect vision systems. The charge dynamics of the shallow trapping centres in MoS2 phototransistors mimic the characteristics of graded neurons, exhibiting multilevel response and volatile feature.   The optoelectronic graded neuron array can directly perceive different types of motion. The bioinspired sensor array can detect trajectories in the visual field with very economical hardware devices, allowing the efficient perception of the direction of the moving objects. By modulating the charge dynamics of the shallow trapping centres in MoS2 phototransistor, the bioinspired sensor array can recognize the motion with a temporal resolution ranging from 10^1 to 10^6 ms.   The bioinspired sensors have potential applications in robotics and artificial intelligence. For example, it could be used to develop more efficient and robots with better motion perception abilities by detecting and responding to the moving objects in the surrounding environment.

New Research on Artificial Cilia Published in Bioactive Materials

Preservation of growth factor sensitivity and bioactivity (e.g., bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2)) postimmobilization to tissue engineering scaffolds remains a great challenge. Dr Xin ZHAO, member of RI-IWEAR, collaborated with Prof. Zijian ZHENG, Associate Director of RI-IWEAR developed a stable and soft surface modification strategy to address this issue. BMP-2 (a model growth factor) is covalently immobilized onto homogeneous poly (glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) polymer brushes which are grafted onto substrate surfaces (Au, quartz glass, silica wafer, or common biomaterials) via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. This surface modification method multiplies the functionalized interfacial area; it is simple, fast, gentle, and has little effect on the loaded protein owing to the cilia motility. The immobilized BMP-2 (i-BMP-2) on the surface of homogeneous PGMA polymer brushes exhibits excellent bioactivity (⁓87% bioactivity of free BMP-2 in vitro and 20%–50% higher than scaffolds with free BMP-2 in vivo), with conformation and secondary structure well-preserved after covalent immobilization and ethanol sterilization. Moreover, the osteogenic activity of i-BMP-2 on the nanoline pattern (PGMA-poly (N-isopropylacrylamide)) shows ⁓110% bioactivity of free BMP-2. This is superior compared to conventional protein covalent immobilization strategies in terms of both bioactivity preservation and therapeutic efficacy. PGMA polymer brushes can be used to modify surfaces of different tissueengineered scaffolds, which facilitates in situ immobilization of growth factors, and accelerates repair of a wide range of tissue types. This research was published in Bioactive Materials, Volume 24, June 2023.

DoRI-IWEAR appointed Consultant of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Composite

Congratulations to Prof. Xiaoming TAO, Director of the Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR), for being appointed as the Consultant of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Composite for a 5-year period starting from April 2023. The State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Composite aims to carry out applied basic research, performance tests and technology assessments on the key technologies and common technical problems that needed to be solved for the development of the nation’s advanced fiber composite industry.

Leaders from the Jinjiang Government and Businesses Visited Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the city government of Jinjiang have come to an agreement to jointly establish the PolyU-Jinjiang Research Institute to strengthen research collaboration among industry, academia, and research organisations to drive development along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The signing ceremony of the agreement was held On 17 February at the PolyU campus.   Before the signing ceremony, the delegation of leaders from the Jinjiang government and businesses visited the Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR). The delegation was warmly welcomed by Prof. Xiaoming TAO, Director of RI-IWEAR, along with other members of the institute.   During the visit, the delegation was given an introduction of the latest developments in intelligent wearable systems. They were also briefed on the institute’s research projects, including the development of smart clothing for healthcare and sports, as well as the use of big data and artificial intelligence in wearable technology.   The delegation expressed great interest in the research being carried out at the institute and saw the potential for collaboration with businesses in Jinjiang. They also spoke highly of PolyU’s reputation as a leading research institution in the field of wearable technology. Overall, the visit was a success in promoting greater collaboration and knowledge sharing between PolyU and businesses in Jinjiang.

RI-IWEAR Hold the Fifth Seminar on 10 February 2023

The Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) hosted the fifth seminar on 10 February 2023. The hybrid-mode seminar was attended by experts, researchers, and professionals from various fields related to intelligent wearable systems.   The seminar featured talks by two speakers included presentations and discussions. The first speaker, Prof. Li Zhang, from the Department of Surgery at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), presented on the topic of Miniature origami robots and flexible devices for endoluminal applications. The second speaker, Dr Shiming Zhang, an Assistant Professor from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), presented on the topic of Scalable manufacturing of soft bioelectronics: materials, devices, and applications.   Overall, the seminar was a great success, providing a platform for experts and researchers to share their knowledge and experiences on intelligent wearable systems. The Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems plans to organise similar events in the future, to continue promoting research and development in the field.