6 Panelists
The scene at the exhibition (the panel of judges)
The CEATEC INNOVATION AWARDS “As Selected by US Journalists” award ceremony was held on a special stage at the venue on Thursday, October 9.
The CEATEC Innovation Awards “As Selected by US Journalists” is awards given to technologies, products, and services on exhibit at CEATEC JAPAN that have been thoroughly scrutinized by journalists of the IT and electronics fields in the United States.
After rigorously inspecting exhibits, the panel of six judges selects the Grand Prix winner from 30 category finalists and all award winners for the innovativeness of the technology, product or service, and its potential influence on global markets including those in the US.
On the emergence of the IoT
Grand Prix: Omron Corporation
In his speech at the awards ceremony, head of the panel of judges, Mr. Micheal Kanellos, greeted the audience saying “this year’s CEATEC was quite different than its predecessors. In prior years, the show was dominated by consumer electronics products, but this year, the conference was dominated by displays for components, Big Data applications, robotic technology. While there are many factors driving this change, perhaps the most important is the emergence of the Internet of Things. We are moving into an era where intelligence will be embedded into virtually every product imaginable.”
Exemplifying this idea was Omron’s table tennis rallying robot, winner of the Grand Prix prize and winner in the software category.
High-performance software technology praised
The reason this robot was selected as the Grand Prix winner was that in contrast to industrial robots that are generally designed to do repetitive work, Omron’s table tennis robot has been enabled to adapt to changing conditions in the environment as required, and was favorably assessed for demonstrating the potential for developing of these kinds of advanced machines.
Panelist Richard Lai expressed his surprise and praised the robot and the strength of Omron’s software technology saying – “never have I imagined that I would get to play ping pong at this trade show – let alone playing against a robot! It quickly felt like I was playing against an actual human: The robot felt real, in the sense that it reacted very much like an average human player would. This is not possible without OMRON’s advanced software capabilities, which drove the analysis of the human player’s movement plus the tracking of the ball, in order to quickly predict the ball’s trajectory and speed. With such vast computing power and quick mechanics, you can imagine the robot’s potential in factory automation.
Mr. Kawakami at Technology Development Center of Omron’s Technology and Intellectual Property HQ expressed delight saying “we have been able to paint an easy-to-understand picture of a future in which machines match the movement of people. This is a thought experiment however it succeeded in expressing what we intended to convey. To be honest, I’m really happy about it.”
Winners
Home Entertainment category
Panasonic: Technics R1
Electronic Components category
Alps Electric: Sensor network Module
Digital Imaging category
Sharp: IR Color Nightvision
Computing and Networking category
ROHM: USB Power Delivery
Software category
Omron: Table Tennis Rallying Robot
Mobile Technology category
Toshiba: Toshiba Glass
Transportation category
Mazda: LED Headlight
Health and Household category
WHILL: Wheelchair
Smart Community category
Mitsubishi Electric: Satellite Program
Industrial Design category
Denso: X-mobility
