July 29, 2009
Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) will receive a Bronze award for the Kitten Scanner and a Bronze award for the Fighting Pneumonia: Breath Counter, a Philanthropy by Design initiative, in the IDEA2009 from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
According to Stefano Marzano, CEO and Chief Creative Director, Philips Design, “Creating value for people is at the core of Philips Design's vision and I am proud that the work we have done to improve people's quality of life in all types of societies has been recognized with these awards."
Kitten Scanner
The Bronze award-winning Kitten Scanner is a product that supports teaching children about what happens during a CAT (or CT) examination. The Kitten Scanner informs children (and parents) and prepares them for the examination in a simple, fun way.
The Kitten scanner is placed in the waiting room of a hospital and consists of a miniaturized and stylized version of a CAT (CT) scanner, a TV screen and several animal characters (a crocodile, an elephant, a robot and a chicken) that children can identify with. While waiting for their scheduled examination, the children are invited to play with the Kitten Scanner by an animation on the TV screen and can choose an animal character and place it on the bed of the Kitten Scanner. The child can then slide the bed and character into the bore of the scanner, mimicking what happens in reality. When the animal character is in the bore of the scanner, its embedded RFID tag activates an animation on the TV screen, telling the story of that particular character. Who is the character, what did they do, why do they need to go to the hospital for a scan. Through this story-telling, the animation shows children about how a real CAT scanner works, how it can see inside the body without cutting it open.
Jos Stuyfzand, Director Ambient Experience Design, Philips Design, says, "The Kitten Scanner is part of the total Ambient Experience flow solution we created for CT environments to enhance the patient and family experience and to improve workflow comfort. It introduces the procedure, which is often an anxiety-creating experience, in a playful way and continues into the examination room to guide the child through the CT scan and offer positive distraction. This more people-friendly solution results in reduced numbers of retakes and sedation rates, in particular for young children."
Fighting Pneumonia: Breath Counter
The Bronze award-winning Fighting Pneumonia: Breath Counter, designed as part of Philips Design’s Philanthropy by Design program, is a simple yet advanced respiration monitoring device for pneumonia detection to provide more accurate and reliable results. It helps healthcare workers to register a child’s breath to classify pneumonia, supporting pneumonia classification testing procedures to save children who live in remote areas in developing countries.
Explained by Megumi Fujikawa, member of the design team, “The Breath Counter is developed to save the children’s lives by supporting accurate pneumonia detection which is carried out by healthcare workers in remote areas. It is purely designed for the end users by challenging the issues in the current pneumonia detection procedure, which are inaccuracy of counting breaths and short lifespan of the current timer. The Breath Counter offers solutions to those issues with its breath registration function, count result display, and solar cells as the energy source for the sustainability of the device.” Philips Design’s Philanthropy by Design program was started in 2005, Together with unconventional partners, such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), public bodies and social players with complementary expertise and values, Philips Design donates its creative expertise and socio-cultural knowledge to create solutions to improve the health and environment of the more fragile categories of the world’s developing societies.
About the IDEA
The IDEA® (International Design Excellence Awards) program is the premier international competition honoring design excellence in products, ecodesign, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts. Entries are invited from designers, students and companies worldwide. Winning entries are announced on BusinessWeek.com and receive coverage in hundreds of print and broadcast media networks around the world. IDSA has been honoring design excellence via the IDEA Awards since 1980. IDEA was formerly known as the Industrial Design Excellence Awards. The name changed in 2007 to emphasize the international reach and influence of the competition.
The awards ceremony will take place on 26 September during the 2009 International Conference: Project Infusion which will be held from 23-26 September in Miami, Florida, USA.
About Philips Design
Philips Design, with 8 branch studios in Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific. Its creative force of some 500 professionals, representing more than 35 different nationalities, embraces disciplines as diverse as psychology, cultural sociology, anthropology and trend research in addition to the more 'conventional' design-related skills. The mission of these professionals is about creating solutions that satisfy people's needs, empower them and make them happier, all of this without destroying the world in which we live.
For further information, please contact:
Philips Design/ Communications
Corine Koopmans
Tel: +31 6 11039136
E-mail:corine.koopmans@philips.com
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 116,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 26 billion in 2008, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
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