The agreement, witnessed by ITRI President Edwin Liu, was signed by ITRI Senior Vice President Jia-Ruey Duann, Director of Xplova Jia-Yan Chen, and Everest Textile VP Eric Wu. Under the MoU, each party is able to play to their strengths. ITRI, for instance, has a smart wearable system that can be integrated into fabrics for exercise performance evaluation and healthcare improvement.

Everest Textile, a major supplier to the world’s greatest sports brands including Nike, Decathlon, Lululemon, and The North Face, will produce innovative, high value-added textile products such as smart garments and accessories for cyclists. Xplova, a subsidiary of Acer Inc. that specializes in smart cycling computer, can combine these products with its smart devices and technology platform to collect data and provide cyclists feedback.

“I am glad ITRI can work together with our brilliant industry partners to develop a digital fitness platform and deliver the values of technologies to our society. This strategic cooperation forges a seamless supply chain. It joins the efforts of a technology innovator, a textile manufacturer, and a smart sport training system architect. The MoU enables the three parties to tap into the digital electronics market, promote sports technologies, and seize new business opportunities,” said ITRI President Edwin Liu. “It also reflects ITRI’s commitment to maximizing the impact of its R&D results and helping industries transform and upgrade,” he added.

“With the recent surge of sports technology worldwide, Xplova is moving into the field of smart training that offers a platform for users at home to experience cycling challenges with other online users or simply work out alone. It is our honor to sign the MoU to develop a digital fitness platform with ITRI and Everest Textile. Through this cross-sector cooperation, we hope to provide a perfect solution for consumers from outdoors to indoors and across amateurs to professionals,” commented Director of Xplova Jia-Yan Chen.

“Everest is an R&D oriented and vertically integrated textile company, manufacturing products from yarns to garments. We have an extensive global network, especially our new manufacturing factory here in United State, Forest city of North Carolina,” said Everest Textile VP Eric Wu. He is happy with the initial result of the smart clothing products made with ITRI’s iStimUweaR, and appreciates the support from and teamwork with ITRI and Xplova. “ITRI and Xplova are the most impressive partners that we have worked with. We look forward to a successful partnership and a promising future!”

ITRI’s iStimUweaR is a health-assisting system integrating TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) into fabrics to intelligently evaluate body status and exercise performance and provide optimized stimulation for pain relief, self-massage, and personal healthcare evaluation and improvement. iStimUweaR garments and pads will be on display at Booth 25650, LVCC, South Hall 2 during Jan. 7-10, 2020.

The Institute will also showcase its latest innovation in digital health and AI & robotics.