The 2017 Textile International Forum and Exhibition (TIFE 2017), annual event organized by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TRRI) under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs was inaugurated on Tuesday with the theme "Intelligent Innovation and Green Circular Economy."

TIFE 2017 kicked off with an opening ceremony attended by officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and representatives of both domestic and international textile firms and two key note speeches delivered by Ms. Arlene Kidd of Ardmel Automation, a UK-based company, and Mr. Frederic Chanay, the CEO of the Canada-based OMSignal.

In their addresses, Kidd shared her insight on the new concepts in performance textiles for the outdoor and defense sectors while Chanay discussed the rapid development of bio-sensing garments manufactured by his firm.

Nine seminars and 3 forums will be conducted at the conference to help domestic textile firms gain a greater understanding of the current trends in the global textile industry. Moreover, experts from the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ukraine, and Japan have been invited to speak on the three main topics of smart textiles, functional textiles, and circular economy.

TIFE 2017 includes an exhibition of smart medical textiles developed by TTRI in collaboration with domestic textile and medical equipment producers in response to the emergence of intelligent medical services.

TTRI has expanded the application of intelligent sportswear to patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation. Intelligent sportswear can be used to monitor the patient rehabilitation status and transmit their physiological data to a rehabilitation system platform. This platform can then provide reminders to patients to regularly exercise. The physiological data transmitted to the platform can enable medical personnel to monitor patient rehabilitation statuses and adopt appropriate actions, thereby strengthening two-way communication channels between patients and health care professionals.

According to a MarketsandMarkets report, the wearable medical device market will have a market value of more than US$12 billion in 2021. Cross-industry cooperation by TTRI and the textile industry will ensure they have a strong presence in the wearable medical device market.

The TIFE 2017 event is held on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27 at the International Convention Center of National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei.