While your tech feeds fill up with news of the new Apple Watch, there’s another kind of “watch” that has fallen by the wayside.
I’m not talking about a piece of tech you wear, either.
I’m talking about “watch” as a verb — the act of closely looking at something.
Watching is what industrial vision systems do, and a tech infrastructure-based portfolio should have at least some component of computer vision inside.
Today, an Israeli vision systems manufacturer reminds us that the world of wearables has more than one kind of “watch.”
It’s something for you to ponder today.
The Idea
The oldest human activity that could be considered an “industry” is textile manufacturing. It’s been going on since ancient times, and there is evidence that weaving was taking place as far back as 5000 B.C.
It was the first business involved in the Industrial Revolution. In the mid-1700s, the Spinning Jenny increased the amount of yarn a worker could spin eightfold and revolutionized cotton fabric production.
It’s an industry with a long, long history peppered with technological innovations.
On a global scale, it undergoes almost constant modernization, and as we move into an era when the Internet is expected to expand eightfold itself, it is an industry thirsty for tech.
China, which has a history of textiles that spans back 3,000 years, is one such region where modernization has been coming in waves.
It’s the most competitive location in the world for the textile industry. Since it’s earned the reputation of being lax on sweatshops, there’s a lot of room for improvement.
A study from Oerlikon Manmade Fibers published in January said, “Outdated filament spinning technologies in China currently account for 42% of the total energy consumption and CO2 emissions, but can supply only 16% of total filament production.”
If modernized systems can simultaneously increase production while decreasing the heretofore low cost of labor, they’re ripe for adoption.
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Clues
Elbit Vision Systems (OTC: EVSNF) is firmly planted in the risky penny stock range, but the company itself is worth considering in the grander scheme of modernization.
It makes visual inspection and process monitoring systems that focus largely on the textile industry. In short, it uses optical sensors to watch for any defects or variation in quality or color of textiles.
Its systems can be used for quality assessment in all types of fabric, including both woven and nonwoven. Woven fabrics are pretty self-explanatory. Nonwoven fabrics find their way into all sorts of things: filtration systems, mineral processing, geotextiles, tarps, acoustic insulation, carpet, surgical masks and scrubs, and so forth.
Today, Elbit announced it received over a million dollars in orders for its legacy IQ-TEX 4 system from an unnamed Chinese home textile manufacturer.
“Legacy” is an important keyword here. It’s tech-speak for “old.”
“Home goods,” likewise, is often shorthand in the textile business for “sheets and blankets.”
Elbit says this is the first business it has done with this particular company and that it’s one of the largest home textile manufacturers in China.
“We are very pleased to receive this order from one of the largest home textile manufacturers in China. This order is a significant one, since it exposes our technology to the massive home textile market segment in Asia,” EVS CEO Sam Cohen said.
This announcement is important because it reminds us that computer vision systems are a process automation that can be slapped onto existing manufacturing capabilities. In many cases, the pipeline of production can remain the same, and companies can use these systems to isolate weak links in the chain.
It is a way to integrate computer systems into manufacturing without fully becoming closed computer-integrated manufacturing systems.
This sort of piecemeal approach is essential when modernizing legacy systems, and textile manufacturing is the ultimate legacy in wearable tech.
Good Investing,
Tim Conneally
For the last seven years, Tim Conneally has covered the world of mobile and wireless technology, enterprise software, network hardware, and next generation consumer technology. Tim has previously written for long-running software news outlet Betanews and for financial media powerhouse Forbes.
