Maintaining a strong manufacturing base in America is important to the great proportion of citizens that are America's human resources. The retail-apparel-textile industries have little regard for their human resources, and are fragmented to the point that attempts to integrate technology have met with limited success. Researchers are developing three innovative technologies that can solve some of these problems and assist American industries in becoming as great as they once were: (1) a 3-D/4-D (maps and animation) computer program for guiding production workers in building quality, one-ofa-kind products at low cost; (2) an integrated CAD/CAM program in which every human resource becomes a part of the whole industrial complex@ and (3) a database program for assessing, sorting, and matching every worker's skills. Stylometries, an image codification language facilitates the 3-D/4-D transformations. The model-maker, who is now an apparel manufacturing engineer, creates the processes for the makers in the factory. The technological research uses the expertise of an apparel manufacturer, and tests an apparel design engineering research for use by the whole industry. The feasibility of this approach is being researched.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: Other CAD/CAM vendors can utilize the interface processes to enhance their systems and make technology more acceptable to the apparel industry. "Skill Clinics" can be structured using the 3-D/ 4-D programs.
