R&D: Innovations for better living

Northern university makes great strides in agriculture and healthcare inventions

e-Agriculture :iTraktor Ploughing Incentive Information System

Developed by

Dr Mohd Syazwan Abdullah and Norfazlin Rashid

Ploughing incentive is given by the government to paddy growers to help ease the cost of land preparation or ploughing. The distribution of the incentive is done via agencies such as Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA) through the district Pertubuhan Peladang Kawasan (PPK).

Eligible farmers would be given coupons for each of their land plots that are entitled to receive the incentive. Ploughing work can only be done by registered ploughing service providers who are the tractor owners.

The assignment of ploughing work is done by the PPK. Once the assigned work is completed, MADA would then disburse payment of the incentive directly to the tractor owners based on the claims and reports provided by PPKs.

The iTraktor Information System provides the ICT means on managing the incentive payments and can be viewed as an innovation in e-Agriculture for the Malaysian agriculture sector in managing incentive payments effectively and efficiently, thus ensuring smooth and timely distribution of incentive payments.

Design of a Customised Pressure Garment Using 3D Digital Scanned Body Image

Developed by

Mohamed Najib Salleh,

Memis Acar AND Neil Burns

Around 2.4 million injuries related to burns are reported each year in the US alone and approximately one million people suffer substantial or permanent disabilities resulting from their injuries. One of the treatments for burn injuries is the use of pressure garments.

Pressure garments are tight fitting elastic garments which apply pressure to the wounded area of the human body for treatment. They prevent and control the formation of hypertrophic scars by applying counter pressure to the wounded area. The garments are usually made either by occupational therapists or commercial companies.

Currently, there are some issues associated with the process of designing and making pressure garments, such as fitting problems, customer satisfaction and delivery time. This research aims to develop a pressure garment that can apply accurate pressure to a wounded area.

In order to achieve the target aim, a system that can design pressure garments for the treatment of burn injuries has been developed. The process included the use of a 3D digital image of the human body, obtained from a 3D body scanner, to design a 3D pressure garment model.

The model is developed by considering several important parameters, such as pressure to be exerted, fabric properties and radius of curvature. Using this model, the 3D pressure garment model is flattened to obtain its 2D pattern.

As a result, this method has reduced time and effort for the body measurement process and increased the accuracy of the measurement. It will also enable customer involvement at an early stage of the design because the developed pressure garment model can be visualised before manufacturing.

The developed pressure garment is very flexible. The pressure garment can easily be recalculated by changing a design parameter and shape. The flexibility can give the manufacturers the opportunity to adapt to their customers’ request quickly.

The system can be used both in the healthcare and sports industry. In healthcare, the developed system can be used to produce a customised pressure garment for burn injury patients, compression garments after surgery, compression stockings to support venous and lymphatic systems of the leg, and diabetic socks.

In the sports industry, the system can be used to develop customised compression sport garments such as compression socks, compression tights and swimming suits.

R&D: Innovations for better living

Northern university makes great strides in agriculture and healthcare inventions

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