Represented by its U. S. textile consultant Harrie Schoots, emtec Electronic GmbH will participate in the AATCC International Summit, taking place October 5–6, in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Summit brings together textile experts to discuss the latest developments in textile testing, performance, comfort, sustainability, artificial intelligence and innovation. For emtec, it provides an ideal platform to highlight new approaches with the TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer to make textile hand feel measurable, comparable and reproducible.
Digitizing Haptics and Textile Comfort at AATCC International Summit 2026
Textile expert Harrie Schoots also serves as chair of the AATCC C11 Committee on Conferences, which, together with AATCC staff and members, is responsible for organizing and further developing the summit. His involvement reflects his longstanding engagement with the North American textile community and his collaboration with emtec Electronic.
Starting with his presentation “Digitizing Haptics: The New Frontier of Comfort,” Schoots will be exploring how objective haptic measurement can support textile development, quality evaluation and the understanding of comfort as one of his several roles at the AATCC Summit. In addition to presenting on textile haptics, he will moderate the panel discussion “Taking the Feelings out of Hand Feel,” which will examine the science behind fabric hand, comfort and haptics and the tools and technologies available to objectively evaluate sensory performance.
Read More: Objective Fabric Hand Feel Measurement with emtec’s Textile Sensation Analyzer
The dedicated Haptics Panel Discussion is intended to provide a focused forum for one of the textile industry’s most challenging questions: How can human sensory experiences be translated into objective and useful information? The discussion will explore how data-driven approaches can support product development, quality control and consumer satisfaction while reducing reliance on purely subjective evaluation.
Making Textile Hand Feel Measurable with the TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer
In the spotlight of his remarks will be emtec’s TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer, which is developed to make the feel of textiles measurable. “Terms such as soft, comfortable or luxurious are widely used in textile development,” explains Harrie Schoots, “but these characteristics have traditionally been evaluated largely through subjective human perception.
The TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer is emtec’s solution for the objective measurement and evaluation of textile tactile properties and hand feel. By combining instrumental measurement with digital data evaluation, the TSA provides textile professionals with new possibilities for understanding, comparing and optimizing the sensory properties of textile materials.
This enables manufacturers and brands to move from subjective descriptions toward quantifiable, comparable and data-driven evaluation of fabric hand feel.” He will demonstrate, how the technology can support product development, quality control and process optimization while helping companies better understand and control the sensory performance of their textiles.
Rather than replacing human perception, objective measurement provides a way to quantify and better understand it—creating a bridge between what people feel and what instruments can measure.
Read More: Hands-on emtec’s TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer at Techtextil North America in Raleigh
Harrie Schoots to Connect with the Textile Community in Wilmington
This years AATCC Summit won’t have a tabletop with emtec, but instead, Schoots – as the AATCC Past President, will focus on connecting with the textile community by meeting textile professionals, researchers, manufacturers, brands and technology providers throughout the event.
As Harrie Schoots is as an experienced international textile professional, he is looking forward to share his knowledge about emtec’s TSA and its approach by objectively measuring the tactile and thermal properties of textile materials and converting sensory characteristics into reproducible measurement data.
