Taiwan wins 6 awards from 2016 R&D 100 awards

The 2016 R&D 100 Awards were presented on November 4, 2016.  With the support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the Bureau of Energy, MOEA, Taiwan’s R&D team receives 6 awards.  The six award-winning innovations include Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (ITRI) “iSmartweaR”, “Long-Distance Floating Multi-Screen Head-up Display (HUD)”, “Wearable Walking Assistive Exoskeleton Robot (2WA-EXO)”, “Ultrafast Rechargeable Aluminum Battery (URABat)”, and “SpeedPro” presented by ITRI and the “Smart Glasses Guidance System” by the Institute for Information Industry (III).  

The success of the winning innovations this year comes from their abilities to straighten out the problems for the human being and from the industry, and ITRI’s “iSmartweaR” is one of such innovations.  The “iSmartweaR” is a design of wearable robotic exoskeleton which is an assistive and wearable equipment enabling people with lower-body paralysis or with spinal cord injury to stand upright again.  Moreover, the “iSmartweaR” is able to track the wearer’s vital signs, such as, pulse, heartbeat, and breath without body contact when the wearer is moving.  It is washable, foldable, and insulating, and it is also light and comfortable to wear.  Integrating these advantages, the “iSmartweaR” is the embodiment of smart wearables.  

Another award-winning technology introduced by ITRI is the “Long-Distance Floating Multi-Screen Head-up Display (HUD)”, a technology relating to IoT.  The core technology of this innovation is the pico laser projector, which will improve driving safety by projecting driving information in a 26-inch virtual display directly into the driver’s field of view and floating at a distance of two meters in front of the driver, allowing the driver to stay focused on the road and also to view three simultaneous adjacent screens for complete information, such as, navigation course, lateral image, and driving information without constantly changing focus.  Besides, the “Smart Glasses Guidance System” presented by III combines and integrates the functions of smart glasses and virtual guidance so that the users of this innovation will be able to access to information provided by automatic guide for whatever they view.  

As to ITRI’s other winning technologies with respect to green energy and intelligent manufacturing, the “Ultrafast Rechargeable Aluminum Battery (URABat)”, made of graphite and aluminum materials, can be fully charged and discharged at high speed so as to reduce cost, serving as a new way of energy storage that replaces lead-acid battery and is applicable to automotive battery, electric assist vehicles, warehousing electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage.  ITRI’s “SpeedPro” is a software able to improve the process of manufacturing.  It can assist people in precisely operating machines by combining cutting dynamics and optimization of tool paths.  

The 54-yr-old R&D 100 Awards, considered the most important technology R&D award in the world, have been annually celebrating and naming, among thousands of submissions around the world, the top 100 significant and revolutionary innovations chosen of the year, serving as the “Oscars of Invention” that identifies the most technologically significant new products on the market.  (October 2016)

/CCS