Category Award Open Category
Elemental Technologies/Devices Category Award

Grand Prix

Outline

The Medical Listening Plug is a wireless, earbud-style hearing aid for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Certified as a controlled medical device, it offers the performance, quality, and safety of a hearing aid at a reasonable price. People can use their smartphones to enjoy integrated professional support, from initial fitting through to after-sales service, in the comfort of their own home. And, as with conventional wireless earbuds, users can listen to music and make hands-free calls.

Assessment

Positioned as a reasonably priced hearing aid that is certified as a medical device, the Medical Listening Plug features a wireless earbud-like design so that it does not look like a hearing aid. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges faced by people with mild to moderate hearing loss when engaged in conversation. As part of the “new normal” life we lead, catching what someone is saying is made more difficult, thanks to the use of masks and protective screens, and having to maintain social distance or engage in online meetings. The device can be used just like a pair of wireless earbuds. This award recognizes the product’s contribution to helping those with potential deafness, maintaining one’s hearing – just as spectacles maintain one’s sight – and thus extending the user’s healthy hearing life span.

Semi Grand Prix

VENUE: Geomagnetic Indoor Positioning Solution Will Change the Way We Work

TDK Corporation

Exhibit Area:General Exhibit Area

Outline

By pre-measuring the geomagnetic field, which has a strength unique to every location on the earth, this solution (software) provides indoor positioning with high accuracy down to one meter based on smartphone magnetic sensor data. If the user has a smartphone, this software makes it possible to build an indoor location positioning solution with much smaller initial investment, because it eliminates the need to prepare new location information devices. This can significantly reduce the cost of initial investments especially in large warehouses and large areas of factories.

Assessment

Time is often spent on searching for things in everyday operations and work is often hampered by over- or under-utilization of equipment and personnel because they are not properly allocated. To address these problems, instead of conventional expensive indoor positioning solutions, VENUE is a software-based real-time indoor positioning solution that utilizes geomagnetism and is characterized by its high accuracy and low cost. Utilizing long years of expertise in magnetic research, the solution was appraised for better accuracy with cell phones and terminals than conventional models at a lower cost, and the promise it holds for new usage scenes.

CEATEC AWARD 2021: Award categories and judging criteria

The awards recognize elemental IoT technologies and devices as well as the ideas behind them that are used to sustain and develop industries and businesses, as well as our society and the way we live in the age of the “New Normal”. Candidates are also evaluated on criteria such as innovation, technological advancement, and superior applicability to products and services.