Taiwan’s sports technology is set to get a boost after state-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute—based in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu County—two local universities and a U.S. electronics industry association agreed to work together to develop the country’s flexible hybrid electronics sector.
ITRI, Chang Gung and National Taiwan Sport universities in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City, and SEMI signed a deal aimed at promoting the FHE smart wearables sector and helping local firms tap into the global sports technology market, the institute said Sept. 6.
FHE devices use technology that allows them to bend, fold and stretch so that they can be comfortably attached to the human body.
The agreement will see the four parties developing technology focused on collecting and analyzing data from athletes to improve performance, monitor physical health and assist in the selection of the most promising candidates for competition.
ITRI Vice President Wu Chih-I said the deal sees the academic, business and R&D sectors teaming up to help Taiwan athletes optimize their performance. The institute has a strong track record in this area, said Wu, citing the institute’s FHE precision motion detection system that can measure the electrical signals passing through muscle tissue to compute the wearer’s strength and fatigue levels.
NTSU will use the technology to train and monitor athletes in the disciplines of basketball, cycling, long-distance running and taekwondo, with CGU contributing scholars from athletics, biomedical science and physics to explore areas such as fatigue detection. ITRI will be in charge of R&D, while SEMI has committed to connecting the local sector with global suppliers.
Terry Tsao, president of Hsinchu County-based SEMI Taiwan, said the country has a well-developed microelectronics industry supply chain, giving it a key advantage in developing the FHE sector.
Taiwan will be more closely integrated with the global fitness wearables market Oct. 3 when ITRI starts working with SEMI-FlexTech—a SEMI strategic partner on FHEs—to establish the Taiwan FlexTech Steering Committee. Its mission is to promote Taiwan’s smart sports technology on the international stage. (CPY-E)
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