It seems today that technology touches every aspect of daily life. Though current sewing machines are technological wonders in-and-of themselves, one hardly associates sewing machines as a wireless peripheral to a PC. Yet, wireless communications with sewing machines is now a reality with a simple-to-use device called StitchLink.

Today’s sewing machines provide more capabilities and options than ever before. It was only a matter of time before sewing professionals and enthusiasts looked to computers to increase the availability of new and exciting patterns for use in the creation of the innovative and diverse clothing styles of the 21st century.

Technology has, in fact, become an emerging trend for sewing enthusiasts. On its website, Bernina estimates that 65 percent of its high-end customers use a PC on a daily basis for various sewing activities:

• Downloading new software and upgrades for sewing machines
• Downloading sewing and embroidery patterns
• Sharing ideas in chat rooms

The use of wireless technology in homes and businesses also continues to grow rapidly.

According to International Data Corporation’s home networking forecast, the number of wireless networks in the home will increase from over 3.1 million in 2002 to nearly 20 million by 2007. This represents almost 84 percent of all PC-using households.

For these savvy users technology is now available to download sewing and embroidery patterns to a PC and then upload them to a sewing machine.

Most name brand sewing machine manufacturers including Brother, Bernina, Pfaff, Janome, Singer, and others have come out with machines that include USB connections. The manufacturers intended these USB connections to allow the machines to connect directly to a PC or to a storage device such as a pin drive, Zip drive or CD-R drive.

If the PC and sewing machine are in close proximity to each other, a serial or USB cable can be used for communication. This is a very practical solution to manage patterns that can be loaded on the sewing machine. The disadvantage to this solution is that a PC must be specifically dedicated to uploading patterns to the sewing machine, which can be costly and inconvenient.

Another option is to use a USB removable media storage drive attached to the sewing machine. With this, a user can copy a pattern to the disk or USB flash drive, then walk the disk over to the drive attached to the sewing machine. This is another workable solution, however, the problem with this scenario is that two drives are needed—one for the PC and one for the sewing machine—and requires many steps in the download, copy, disk transfer, and upload process.

A better way is to use StitchLink, which will allow users to wirelessly move software upgrades and patterns directly to the sewing machine eliminating the need to use removable storage disks or to have a PC present.

StitchLink becomes wirelessly available to the PC for seamless communications. It has been specifically designed for the sewing machine market. It eliminates messy cables between the PC and sewing machine and enables the wireless access of software, firmware upgrades and patterns.

StitchLink has been tested with most popular USB enabled sewing machines and is as simple to use as a direct connection using a cable or network.

StitchLink is available for $249. Contact a silex representative at (801) 747-0656, or visit www.silexamerica.com to learn more about this innovative solution.

About silex technology america

silex technology america, Inc. is a subsidiary of silex technology, Inc. (JASDAQ:6679), a 30-year developer of systems, developer of external and embedded device-device connectivity products and biometric readers and software. silex has become one of the largest global suppliers of print server products over the past 10 years, and also offers a full line of biometric fingerprint devices. silex technology america is focused on offering leading edge print servers, device servers, and fingerprint security devices that help enterprises, small to medium businesses and individuals improve the way they move data, print, and secure information. For additional information, call (801) 747-0656 or go to www.silexamerica.com  or www.silexreseller.com .