CEATEC AWARD 2019
Winners of The Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award, The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award, Category Awards, and Special Awards

October 14, 2019

The CEATEC Executive Board – consisting of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, the Communications and Information Network Association of Japan, and the Computer Software Association of Japan – has announced the recipients of two ministerial awards, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award and the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award, as well as Category Awards, as selected by the CEATEC AWARD review board panel of judges. Under the exhibition theme “Connecting Society, Co-Creating the Future”, CEATEC AWARD 2019 is held with the aim of realizing “Society 5.0” through CPS/IoT, contributing to the creation and development of new value and markets, and contributing to the invigoration of those related industries.

In this release you will find details of CEATEC AWARD 2019 and the results of the rigorous assessments conducted by the CEATEC AWARD 2019 Review Panel.

About CEATEC AWARD 2019

CEATEC AWARD 2019 recognizes excellence. Technologies, products, and services are chosen from among the many exhibits at CEATEC 2019 to be assessed by the CEATEC AWARD 2019 Review Panel for such criteria as academic value, technological prowess, potential, and marketability. Awards are bestowed on those entries deemed to be innovative and exceptional.
Please refer to the Official Website (https://www.ceatec.com/en/outline/outline04.html) for the details of each award.

CEATEC AWARD 2019 Winners

The Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award

Outline
As athletes gain ever greater ability, their gymnastic feats – executed at high speed – are rapidly becoming more complex. In an increasing number of cases, the judges, who must make their assessments visually, are hesitant to decide on a score. Fujitsu’s 3D sensing and AI technologies facilitate instant, accurate decisions by these judges.

Assessment
In addition to providing support for judges’ decisions, the company is developing training applications and ways to provide digital content for spectators. As a technology that brings people together and provides a better overall experience, it was highly evaluated for creating new potential for the practical use of AI. Fujitsu has established an open innovation model platform based on this technology and intended to achieve the goals of SDG 3 (“Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages”) via expanding applications into the health promotion and healthcare fields. Moreover, credit was given to the multifaceted potential for future applications, including the creation of new value in collaboration with partners in diverse fields. In addition to the possibilities for making use of this technology in a wide range of fields such as health promotion, healthcare and industrial fields, as well as in the transmission of traditional culture, it is expected that it will contribute to the creation of high value-added markets through reducing the time required to create new games and animated movies, cutting production costs through the secondary use of real data.

The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award

Outline
With the expansion of markets for wearables and for IoT applications in factories, agriculture and medical care, there is an increasing number of applications that require compact batteries for use in restricted spaces but also in challenging new environments. To meet these market needs, Murata has developed a battery that, while providing the same voltage as a conventional lithium-ion battery, offers the highest capacity in the industry. Its structure and exceptional heat resistance, unequaled by conventional batteries, mean that it can be combined with other electronic components and even surface-mounted.

Assessment
This battery is compact and offers both high capacity and high performance under grueling conditions. Moreover, compared to a conventional lithium-ion battery, it excels in safety and durability. Furthermore, it is expected to facilitate the manufacture of smaller, more reliable wearable devices, which hitherto have been difficult to produce, and to contribute the betterment of society by meeting the diverse requirements of IoT – including those related to the emerging market for hearables such as wireless earphones, which must perform for many hours while ensuring high safety.

Category Awards

Total Solutions Category

Outline
Aiming to contribute to the realization of Society 5.0, the conceptual vision of future society, it is important to meet the demand for ways to digitize analog data while reducing the burden on human personnel. LiLz Gauge is designed to create new value by simultaneously drawing on IoT and machine-learning technologies: namely, IoT cameras designed to work on battery power for up to 3 years and a Cloud-based service that uses machine learning to analyze meter readings. In future, the addition of new algorithms will enable more efficient inspections as well as predictive detection.

Assessment
LiLz Gauge was assessed as being a valid approach for realizing greater efficiencies in instrument inspection, a solution that combines IoT devices and the Cloud. While offering value in the form of remote inspections, it also provides a means of automatically collecting data. As an open innovation project, it was developed jointly with Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Ltd. (listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, First Division), and has already been deployed for testing at 11 companies. After repeated tests and surveys conducted at real facility maintenance sites, it will be announced as a commercial product in early December. It was highly evaluated for offering a practical solution to market needs through the use of machine learning and IoT.
Outline
SoundUD is a standard for acoustic communication, developed in Japan and adopted by over 290 companies. By simultaneously realizing universal design and open innovation, this standard generates sustainable activities through an ecosystem combining business interests and social contribution.
In addition to facilitating multilingual services such as announcements and live broadcasts for transportation services, commercial facilities, stadiums, and TV stations, SoundUD is used to improve information accessibility as well as for advertising/content distribution and sales promotion services.

Assessment
SoundUD realizes open innovation and universal design through standardization of related patents. It impressed the judges for realizing sustainable activities through an ecosystem combining business interests and social contribution, based on the principles of universal design and open innovation. By standardizing acoustic communication, it provides mechanisms/tools that are easy for enterprises to adopt, and this in turn leads to the realization of open innovation in a wide range of fields as well as contributing to society through universal design. SoundUD was highly evaluated for this. There are also high expectations for further development from an international perspective, in addition to providing multilingual support for foreign tourists in Japan.

Smart X Category

Outline
Representing a next-generation parts procurement platform, meviy greatly facilitates manufacturing: once design data for sheet metal parts and components made by cutting/processing metal or resin are uploaded to the Cloud, AI technology is used to automatically recognize the shape of each part, following which the relevant prices and delivery times are displayed in a few seconds. When an order is placed, this platform ensures rapid delivery (items can be dispatched within 1 day), even for build-to-order production. Harnessing two revolutionary developments – AI-based automatic estimates and digital manufacturing systems – meviy can drastically reduce the parts procurement process for manufacturers.

Assessment
By providing remarkable time value, meviy gives the enterprise more time to spend on creative processes. As a manufacturing platform that supports Society 5.0. which aims at economic development while also solving social issues, meviy represents high value as it fosters creativity and satisfaction among those involved in production. Misumi Group, which has an established presence in parts procurement, was highly appraised for taking the initiative, creating this new innovation, and thus making a significant contribution to solving DX issues in Japan’s manufacturing industry while further expanding the latent needs of its customers.
Outline
Non-invasive methods for measuring blood sugar and lipid levels have been proposed in the past but they did not result in practical applications due to concerns regarding accuracy and portability. Realizing that the shape of the human pulse wave changes following a meal, Kyocera became the first company in the world to develop a carbohydrate monitoring system that uses changes in pulse wave shape to estimate the degree of glucose metabolism. Kyocera's carbohydrate diet monitor is a compact wrist-mounted device featuring a gyro sensor that measures the pulse wave shape. It thus allows the wearer to monitor his/her glucose metabolism following a meal, anywhere and at any time.

Assessment
Thanks to the development of this low-cost, compact pulse wave sensor with built-in gyro sensor, it is possible to monitor glucose metabolism with very little power consumption: it operates on a button battery. Making this product widely available to many users will promote the early detection and prevention of diabetes as well as reducing medical costs. The judges appraised Kyocera highly for employing gyro sensor technology to realize their innovative pulse wave sensor concept, as well as going on to develop a new market from their discovery of the close correlation between changes in pulse wave shape and blood sugar levels.

Devices & Technologies Category

Outline
EnerCera® is an ultra-compact on-board lithium-ion rechargeable battery ideally suited as a power source for IoT devices and featuring a proprietary electrode design that employs crystal-aligned ceramic plates. Despite being compact and very thin, this battery offers high capacity and low resistance. It can support currents as large as 100mA such as those required to drive ICs and sensors or wireless communications. And this battery is essential for the mass production of circuit boards as it is compatible with reflow soldering.

Assessment
Ultra-compact wireless modules are the key to developing ubiquitous IoT applications, but finding a suitable power source has been recognized as the critical issue hampering full-scale deployment. But this battery represents an ideal, completely maintenance-free solution. Moreover, it was highly evaluated for making optimum use of surrounding energy (through energy harvesting) – something that was previously impossible – without environmental impact. Being a secondary (rechargeable) battery, it can be used repeatedly and has an expected life of as long as 10 years, which contributes to waste reduction. The company has employed proprietary ceramics technology to create a product that differs from the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries available today. It is expected that this will lead to the future development of the market for this new category of power-storage device.
Outline
This palm-sized smell sensor, which can be used with any object, is equipped with a sensor chip on which are mounted 20 different sensing elements, each of which has a different sensitive film coated on a thin piezoelectric film of lead zirconate titanate (PZT). When a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric film, it resonates; but when an odorant molecule attaches to the film, the resonance frequency changes. These changes are collated as numerical data. Pattern matching then enables identification of the odorant. By employing MEMS equipped with PZT piezoelectric film, it has been possible to create a compact low-cost device. Even more odorants can be identified if the number of sensing elements is increased.

Assessment
It is easy to identify a smell by inputting the sensor data to the odorant-identification AI application provided by Toppan Printing. This is expected to foster new markets such as quality control (gauging maturity or detecting decay in foodstuffs) , health management (breath odor), odorant detection and related standards creation for indoor spaces (hotels, used cars, etc.), and offensive smell monitoring (in factories). Implementing such monitoring in environments such as factories where there is a possibility of odors having a negative impact on personnel can lead to improvements in the workplace environment. Furthermore, the judges were highly impressed by the fact that, by creating such a compact smell sensor, the developers had tapped into diverse market needs that had hitherto been unexplored.

Special Awards

Outline
The ANA AVATAR is a new social infrastructure conceived by ANA that transcends the barriers to movement that mankind has faced throughout history, lifting the physical restrictions imposed on us by distance. It connects people, facilitating social participation and activities. Development by ANA in cooperation with industry, government, and academia, avatar robots are produced using avatar technologies developed through the combination of robotics, VR, AR, haptics, AI, and communication technologies. These avatars will allow people to instantly teleport their consciousness, presence and skills to a remote location. The ultimate aim is to realize a future world expanded by man, while creating a new concept of transportation.

Assessment
At first glance, it would seem that an avatar social infrastructure developed by an airline company is a concept that is likely to shrink their own market. However, they have approached it flexibly and started from scratch in reconceiving mobility as a form of communication through virtual reality while fostering an in-house startup that has taken two years for internal settlement. By providing and positioning new mobility options, motivating people in different locations to meet one another, ANA has adopted a fresh approach with the potential to cultivate the transportation market, growing it and leading to higher added value. This innovative approach and ANA’s enthusiasm for business development won high praise from the panel.
Outline
CI Inc. is developing a system that allows Web-based reservations and cancellations to be made for a sick childcare facility. Phone reservations are the norm for 90% of such facilities, making it difficult for many parents to make a reservation. By adopting CI’s Azukaruko-chan system, a facility can ensure that fewer parents find that they cannot get through when phoning. Moreover, the staff spend less time answering the phone and can focus more on caring for the sick children. This reservation system offers Web-based application/cancelation, automatic list generation for those wishing to use the facility, and a notification function designed to prevent parents from forgetting to cancel.

Assessment
So as to handle specialist issues, the company has several medical personnel such as pediatricians and staff specialized in the care of sick children, midwives and obstetricians. It can also draw on its close links with childcare facilities, academic societies and local governments so as to be always aware of the details of any on-site issues that arise; this knowledge is then fed into the application. The judges were very impressed by this. The company has not simply adopted an IT approach to handle the office work of childcare facilities. So that the sick childcare business is used effectively as a foundation for the child-rearing generation to achieve their potential, fulfilling their social responsibilities while raising children, CI is developing this service which, it is hoped, will solve issues facing society that are related to the care of sick children.

CEATEC AWARD 2019 Ceremonies and Review Board Panel of Judges

CEATEC AWARD 2019 — Ministerial Awards Ceremony
October 15 (Tue.) 18:30 -- 20:30
To be commenced during CEATEC 2019 Opening Reception at Aoi Ballroom, Palace Hotel Tokyo

CEATEC AWARD 2019 — Category Awards Ceremony
October 16 (Wed.) 11:30 – Noon
To be commenced at CEATEC 2019 Press Center, Exhibition Hall 6, Makuhari Messe

CEATEC AWARD 2019 Review Board Panel of Judges (no specific order)
Chairman, Review Board Panel of Judges:
Mr. Toshiyuki Nakata, Social ICT Research Center, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo
Vice Chairman, Review Board Panel of Judges:
Mr. Waichi Sekiguchi, Representative Director, MM Research Institute, Ltd.
Review Board Panel of Judges
Mr. Kotaro Asai, Information Processing Society of Japan
Mr. Yukitoshi Sanada, Director, Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
Mr. Toru Imai, Vice President, Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers
Mr. Yoshinobu Okano, Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan
Mr. Tetsuya Muroyama, Vice Chairman, Japanese Association of Science and Technology Journalists
Mr. Tetsushi Hayashi, Director of Consulting, Nikkei BP Research Institute
Mr. Makoto Nishisaka, Director, ST Editorial Division, Professional Media Business Headquarters, IT media Inc.
Mr. Asuka Yazaki, Chief Editor, Engaget Editorial Department, Verizon Media/Oath Japan K.K.
Mr. Yutaka Ake, Nikkan-Kogyo Shimbun, Director, Digital Media Bureau


CEATEC 2019 Exhibition
Dates: October 15 (Tue.) ~ 18 (Fri.), 10:00 ~ 17:00 (10:00AM ~ 5:00PM)
Venue: Makuhari Messe (2-1 Nakase, Mihama-ku, Chiba)
Theme: Connecting Society, Co-Creating the Future
Admission: Free of charge (All visitors are required to register online in advance)
Sponsorship: CEATEC Executive Board
- Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA)
- Communications and Information network Association (CIAJ)
- Computer Software Association of Japan (CSAJ)

About CEATEC

Under the theme Connecting Society, Co-Creating the Future, CEATEC is an exhibition that disseminates the future around us through harnessing technologies like CPS/IoT. CEATEC provides an opportunity for many key players from diverse industries and businesses including IT/electronics, mobility, financial, travel, and housing to gather under one roof, to demonstrate advanced initiatives toward the future society including the future vision and business model of each exhibitor. Last year alone, the show has seen a total of 725 exhibitors, along with 156,063 visitors from around the world. For details please refer to www.ceatec.com.