A visionary experience - Philips Research

Issue 31 – February 2008 Philips Research technology magazine
Password
How the compact fluorescent
bulb can help fight climate change
Seeing the light
Bringing cinema into
your living room
A visionary
experience
Imaging gets
personal
When a stroke hits,
every second counts
Password February 2008

Page 4
Password is a technology magazine published
by Philips Research.
Philips Research, part of Royal Philips
Electronics, has laboratories in three
regions (Europe, Asia and North
America) where around 1,800 people
investigate promising options for
innovation.
Concept and realization
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2 Password February 2008
Editor-in-chief
Peter van den Hurk
peter.j.van.den.hurk@philips.com
Project editor
Brandy Vaughan
Desk editor
Brian Jones
Design and Art Direction
Jan Tiedo Huesse
Antoin Buissink
Production management
Claudia van Roosmalen
Erica Schrijvers
Distribution management
Erica Schrijvers
A visionary
experience
The groundbreaking new Ambilight is
making quite an impression – without
ever leaving the living room.
Contributors
Roland Blokhuizen
Stuart Cherry
Cedric Collet
Karin Engelbrecht
Peter Harold
Brandy Vaughan
Susan Wild
Printer
Daneels Grafische Groep, Belgium
Subscription
www.research.philips.com/password
More information
Philips Research
Communications Department
High Tech Campus 5 (MS04)
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Tel. +31-40-27 43403
Fax. +31-40-27 44947
E-mail: prpass@natlab.research.philips.com
Articles and images may be reproduced only
with permission from Philips Research
© KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS
ELECTRONICS N.V. 2008
All rights reserved

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Contents
Seeing the light
As climate change and energy
efficiency make headlines, the
compact fluorescent lightbulb finds
popularity again – more than 25 years
after its debut.
Imaging gets personal
In life-threatening situations, doctors
can easily become overwhelmed by
the amount of information that needs
to be processed in order to save lives.
But new automated image analysis
and 3D organ modeling can help
doctors in the race to find a diagnosis.
A natural choice
Waking up to an alarm clock is a
relatively modern activity. Biologically,
humans are hardwired to wake up
naturally with the rising sun. In winter,
that’s not often an option but the new
Wake-up Light from Philips offers a
good alternative.
Saving time,
saving lives
When someone suffers a stroke,
every second counts. New tools are
under development to help doctors
make those life-saving decisions more
quickly.
16 ExperienceLab
An interactive shop window
can transform a shopper’s
experience and boost sales.
18 Making the impossible
possible
A 24-hour personal assistant
and hospital-level medical
service from the comfort of
your own home – sound like
a dream? Not so, says world-
renown technology forecaster
Daniel Burrus.
28 Did you know...
Interesting facts and figures at
your fingertips.
30 Behind the nano
Password gets the inside story
on Erik Bakkers, winner of
Technology Review’s prestigious
‘Young Innovator under 35’
award.
Password February 2008
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A visionary
experience
4 Password February 2008

y Stuart Cherry Images: Philips
Remember your parents telling you not to watch television in
the dark? It turns out they were right. Simply turning on a light
behind the screen makes watching easier on the eye and adds
to the visual experience. So how did an idea as simple as this
turn into a groundbreaking new viewing experience and one of
the hottest products in today’s TV market?
Once, product technology was the driving force in
electronics development. Then the ‘experience economy’
arrived, shifting the focus from selling clever products to
selling sensations and emotions. In this new world, the
Ambilight experience is a perfect example.
You could describe Ambilight as a TV with built-in
ambient lighting effects. But that doesn’t come anywhere
close to the Ambilight experience – which is unique to
Philips. Think of the difference surround sound makes and
then consider Ambilight as the ‘surround color’ version. It
completely immerses you in the action, makes the screen
seem larger and relaxes your eyes. Even leading industry
reviewers familiar with the whole gamut of new TV
technologies are impressed.
“Ambilight doesn’t simply look pretty, it really helps
involve you in the picture,” says Clare Newsome, editor of
the UK’s What Hi-fi? (Sound and Vision) magazine. “It does
so by using a system of lights embedded in the set’s chassis,
which react in symphony with the action on the screen
to create a richer, more involving and ‘larger’ picture. The
effect this has on three-dimensionality is incredible.”
Big thinking
As pioneering as the idea is, Ambilight owes its existence
to an unknown Philips employee who remembered his or
her parents’ advice – and to the fortuitous moment when
that memory found its way into a realm of big thinking on
Ambient Intelligence (the term used to describe electronic
environments sensitive and responsive to people’s needs
and emotions).
“At the time, our researchers, together with design
and human-science specialists, were developing ideas
around Ambient Intelligence, asking big questions about
the experiences people could really enjoy instead of just
trying to make products better,” explains Emile Aarts, vicepresident
of Philips Research.
Indeed, Ambilight originally had nothing to do with
television – it was born in Philips’ Research and Lighting
divisions. “We were looking at how light could add value
to people’s everyday lives,” says Elmo Diederiks, who
was a member of the initial research project. “During a
brainstorming session, someone must have remembered
the warnings about watching TV in a dark room because
we discovered the idea about using light to enhance TV
viewing scribbled on a Post-it ® note.”
Interactive research
It normally takes years for an idea to make it to the
marketplace, but Ambilight made that journey in just a year
and a half. What’s more: behind this unique TV experience
and its rapid rise lies a unique story of testing and design
based on ‘user-centric development’. It may sound like
jargon, but user-centric development is eminently practical.
It means involving real consumers in the development
process right from the start through an interactive, step-bystep
process. Asking not just “Is this concept interesting?”
but also “What’s important to the experience?” and “How
can we make it better?”.
“Usually when a company develops a new product,
it’s trying to extend the technology and only shows it to
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consumers at the prototype stage,” Diederiks says. “But
involving potential users early on actually makes the whole
process much more efficient. Once we knew what people
wanted, finding the right technology was simple.”
So what did people want? To find out, the team
transformed the Post-it ® note idea into a complete
scenario explaining how light could bring the onscreen
action to life. Put to consumers along with a number
of other scenarios, the Ambilight concept came out on
top and rapidly moved from idea to prototype. Again,
consumers were asked to assess the prototype in a battery
of formal and informal tests. This time the testing was done
at the ‘HomeLab’ (part of the ExperienceLab) – a research
facility that’s more like a house than a laboratory.
Not a disco
For those who haven’t experienced it, Ambilight may sound
too much like a ‘TV with disco lights’. But this impression
doesn’t last long. Apparently some early testers thought
this when they first read the concept description – that
is until they settled back to watch an Ambilight TV in the
Home Lab living room.
“People came up to us afterwards demanding to be at
the top of the list for beta testing. That’s how keen they
were to have Ambilight in their own homes,” explains
Jettie Hoonhout, the Philips psychologist who oversaw
the testing. “We knew then that paper descriptions would
never do Ambilight true justice.”
A glowing success
Indeed, Aarts admits that while Philips was quietly
confident Ambilight could be a success, the company is
still surprised at just how successful it has been. After the
first sets hit the market in August 2004, Ambilight became
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a huge hit with consumers right away. So much so that in
mid-2007, Ambilight TV sales passed the million mark – a
notable achievement in a saturated market where truly
innovative products are rare.
Moreover, market surveys show that over 75%
of respondents think Ambilight improves the viewing
experience. That same research reveals that, although the
consumer-testers asked for an off switch, most Ambilight
TV owners never turn the effects off. One person even
claimed, “If the Ambilight isn’t on, it’s like there’s a black
hole around my TV.”
Buoyed by the positive reactions, Philips continues
to further develop the concept to deliver an even more
intensive viewing experience through further consumer
feedback. The fourth generation of the technology has
just been launched as the Aurea range of TVs. Featuring
126 separate LEDs arranged in an ‘active frame’ around
the screen, Aurea offers the most immersive Ambilight
experience to date.
A winning formula
The ‘experience’ thinking behind Ambilight has also led the
company into new areas such as amBX which takes the
Ambilight idea and makes it multi-sensory by adding sound,
vibration, air movement and other effects. This ultimate
immersive experience is available to gamers, filling their
entire environment with physical sensation, and will be
coming soon to other media.
It’s been quite a journey for an idea discovered on a
Post-it ®. It also reveals the value of the interplay between
big conceptual ideas like Ambient Intelligence, specific
technical know-how and a research approach that puts
people at its heart. In Ambilight, Philips has found a winning
formula. It’ll be interesting to watch the encore.

More
Creating the Ambilight effect
Only a small part of your eye, known as
the macula, actually sees a sharp image.
An even smaller portion, the fovea, is
responsible for producing the even-
sharper vision needed to watch television
or read. For the rest of your retina, the
image is blurred. Your brain then works
efficiently to combine all the information
into a coherent picture.
Ambilight helps enlarge this picture
through an innovative technology that
can ‘read the screen’ to produce the
surrounding color. It works by analyzing the
input video signal in real time to determine
the dominant color in each area of the
screen, averaged over a number of frames.
It then uses color-mapping transformations
to extend these color signatures beyond
the screen. While the fovea is looking at
the screen, the ambient colors fall on the
surrounding part of the retina convincing
your brain that you are seeing a larger
image. The result is a much more cinematic
experience in your own home and a feeling
that you are truly immersed in the action.
Reducing eye strain
In a dark room, the TV is the main source of
light. Therefore, when the picture on the
screen changes, there’s a big fluctuation
on the light level in the room which causes
your pupil to dilate or contract in response.
TV images change rapidly, so the muscles
controlling your pupil have to work hard to
keep up, leading to eye fatigue. Ambilight
evens out the changes in the ambient light
levels, so your pupil – and the muscles that
control it – don’t have to work as hard and
therefore eyes feel less tired.
Ambilight’s soothing effect has been
confirmed in numerous studies. In 2004,
Professor Begemann of the Technical
University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands,
showed that Ambilight can reduce eye
strain in 60-90% of people under normal
‘home theatre room lighting’ conditions. In
2005, John Bullough and colleagues at the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New
York (USA) found a beneficial effect on
visual discomfort, fatigue and eye strain.
A 2007 report by Herbert Plischke and
colleagues from the Ludwig-Maximilians
University in Germany and the University
of Applied Sciences in Austria concluded
Ambilight improved relaxation and
attention levels.
http://www.flattv.ce.philips.com/
http://www.aurea.philips.com/
http://www.research.philips.com/
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y Brandy Vaughan Images: Philips, Michel Klop, Getty Images
Seeing the light
With climate change moving from back-page news to frontpage
headline, the compact fluorescent bulb has a new lease
on life – 25 years after it first hit the market.
Once an oddity in the world of lighting, energy-efficient
compact fluorescent lamps (or CFLs) are making a
comeback now that climate change is firmly on the agenda
of politicians, CEOs and even celebrities.
Changing the world one bulb at a time
Why all the new attention? On average, CFLs use 70-80%
less energy than the typical incandescent bulb to generate
the same amount of light – making them an increasingly
popular way to do something good for the environment
and your wallet. Less energy means less carbon dioxide
emitted into the environment from the burning of fossil
fuels – the most common way to generate energy. Most
experts believe carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions are a
major contributor to global warming (aka climate change).
Although estimates vary, swapping just one
incandescent bulb for a CFL could save up to 500
pounds of CO2 emissions – equivalent to driving a few
thousand miles in a car. Research also shows that CFLs last
anywhere from four to eight times longer than the typical
incandescent meaning fewer bulbs and far less packaging
ends up in landfills.
More efficient
So how do CFLs manage to be so much more efficient than
old-style bulbs? The simple answer is incandescent bulbs
– with their 125-year-old technology – convert 95% of the
energy used into heat while only 5% is released as visible
light. In CFLs, the amount of light produced versus energy
used is much higher.
“Since first introduced over 100 years ago, the
incandescent bulb has barely changed,” says Dr Matt
Prescott, Director of www.banthebulb.org, an online
campaign encouraging greater energy efficiency. “The bulb
wastes so much energy that if it were invented today odds
are that it wouldn’t even be allowed on the market.”
According to Cees Ronda, from Philips Research,
the efficiency is in the details. “Incandescents produce a
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wide spectrum of radiation at numerous wavelengths but
most of it is not visible because the temperature is too
low. This non-visible light is then released in the form of
heat,” he explains. “With CFLs, radiation is generated at
specific wavelengths that are visible so less energy is lost
as heat. Therefore, CFLs produce a much smaller range of
wavelengths but more visible light.”
Saving energy, saves money
Along with fears of a soon-exhausted oil supply, energy
demand is at an all-time high driving up energy costs.
With this, CFLs make even more sense. In the USA alone,
consumers could save around $6 billion a year in energy
costs by installing more energy-efficient lighting, according
to the US-based Alliance to Save Energy.
But as Prescott points out: “Consumers tend to be
short-sighted and focus on the higher upfront cost of an
energy-saving bulb, which is disappointing because, in the
long term, the running costs of a CFL are much lower.”
In the beginning
Much has changed since Philips brought the first CFLs to
market in 1980, but the need for energy-efficient lighting
is now more important than ever. The story of the CFL
begins in the early 1970s when the 1973 oil crisis raised
awareness of potential issues with energy consumption
and inspired companies, like Philips, to take a more serious
interest in energy-efficient lighting.
Developments made in Philips Research in the late
1960s with rare earth metals and luminescent materials
made the CFL technology possible. Harry Verhaar, dubbed
‘Mr Green Switch’ by his colleagues in Philips Lighting,
explains: “During the oil crisis, we became aware of the
need for more efficient lighting options. As consumers we
were asked to save energy when OPEC cut off oil deliveries
to Western Europe and the USA. The recent technological
advancements allowed us to develop a new lighting
technique that was more stable and more efficient.”
But when the oil crisis died down so did consumers’
dedication to energy efficiency. So in 1980, when Philips
introduced the first CFLs, people didn’t quite embrace
them as hoped. The bulb price was high and consumers
lacked understanding of the long-term energy and cost
savings. Light quality was another issue as consumers
thought the color was too harsh and had no patience for
the time it took for CFLs to fully light.
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Times are changing
Fortunately, in the 25 years since first hitting the market,
CFLs have come a long way. They no longer flicker or buzz
and the light quality has improved dramatically. Newer CFLs
offer a warmer soft-white light, take less time to light up
and have become significantly smaller. They’re also more
versatile with different sockets and dimming capabilities.
But research suggests that although the bulb has
evolved, consumers are stuck in the past. “From market
research we learned that still few people know about all the
improvements made in CFLs over the last decade or so,”
notes Verhaar.
No longer a choice
If recent legislation is anything to go by, consumers may
soon have no choice but to switch to CFLs. In 1997,
most developed countries signed the Kyoto Protocol – a
groundbreaking agreement that attempts to mitigate
climate change through mandatory reductions in
greenhouse gases, particularly CO2 emissions. As the 2012
target nears, governments are scrambling to make a real
impact on their CO2 emissions, which for some includes
the phasing out or eventual banning of incandescent bulbs.
In early 2007, Australia announced a ban on incandescent

ulbs in favor of CFLs by 2010, after a government-initiated
study found CFLs to be five times more energy efficient
than incandescents.
Canada announced in April 2007 that it will ban the sale
of incandescent bulbs by 2012 in a bid to curb greenhouse
More
There are two main parts in a CFL:
the gas-filled tube (also called bulb or
burner) and the ballast. Electrical energy
in the form of an electrical current from
the ballast flows through the gas-filled
tube containing mercury molecules
which have a special property: when
excited, they emit ultraviolet light.
The ultraviolet light, in turn, excites a
Inside the bulb
phosphor coating on the inside of the
tube and emits visible light, which shines
out through the tube. This phosphor
coating is a mixture of luminescent
materials, each emitting a different
color. By changing the composition of
the mixture, lamps generating different
grades of white light can be developed
(daylight, soft white, etc).
gas emissions. In October of the same year, the state of
California (USA) announced that it will phase out the use
of incandescent bulbs by 2018 as part of a bill aptly titled:
‘How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light
Bulb’. Other US states have similar legislation pending.
Making the CFL as reliable and high
quality as the incandescent required a lot
of research – and an electronics revolution.
Early CFLs cost around $25 per bulb
(although they still paid for themselves in
electricity savings). The light they produced
was bluish or pinkish so the phosphor
coating had to be refined. The ballast
hummed and didn’t cycle the electricity
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The European Union (EU) is also preparing legislation
requiring the use of energy-efficient lighting in offices,
streets and private households, while many countries within
the EU are drafting their own legislation.
Greening the bulb
Estimates show that 25% of global lighting emissions come
from incandescent bulbs but they only produce 4% of
quickly enough therefore leading to a
re-design to make it more electronic and
miniaturized. Eventually, costs came down
as did size.
A popular concern about CFLs is
that the technology underpinning the
efficiency relies on a small amount of
mercury to produce light. And while the
concern is legitimate – and all exhausted
CFLs must be properly recycled – a
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government-initiated study in Australia
found that when you consider the mercury
produced from burning fossil fuels for
electricity, the energy-hungry incandescent
contributes five times more mercury into
the environment than a CFL. According to
the US Environmental Protection Agency,
coal-fired power plants emit four times
more mercury to power an incandescent
bulb than to power a CFL.
global artificial-light output. Yet still, the impact of compact
fluorescents has been somewhat limited as consumers fail
to look beyond the higher sticker price to the long-term
savings in terms of both cost and energy.
But as we learn more about the massive climate-change
challenge we all face, it becomes clear that the question
is no longer “How can we afford to switch to CFLs?” but
instead “How can we afford not to?”
Philips CFLs contain a record low
amount of mercury – less than two
milligrams, which is up to four times
less than competitor CFLs. Philips
also utilizes pellet dosing versus liquid
mercury to ensure safe and accurate
levels of mercury per bulb and
continually looks for ways to reduce the
amount of mercury while still maintaining
light quality and performance.

y Susan Wild Images: Philips
Imaging gets
personal
Fans of television medical dramas will recognize the scene:
dedicated doctors examining hundreds of computed
tomography (CT) images, racing to find a diagnosis
and save lives. Ironically in the real world, medical
scans now deliver so much data that
doctors barely have enough time
to use it to best effect. But that’s
about to change thanks to new
automated image analysis and
3D organ modeling.
When Wilhelm Röntgen made the first shadowy X-ray
images of his wife’s hand in 1895, he could hardly fathom
where those initial steps would lead. Today, medical imaging
shows doctors the structures and organs inside the body in
remarkable detail and clarity, using an array of non-invasive
technologies of which the X-ray was the first.
The X-ray is still at the heart of numerous imaging
techniques including radiography, angiography, fluoroscopy
and CT. Over time, this group has expanded to include
others such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron
emission tomography (PET), single photon emission
computed tomography (SPECT) and ultrasound.
As the number of modalities (the term used for types
of imaging technology) has grown, so too has the number
of scans conducted. In the USA alone, the number of CT
scans grew from 30 million in 1999 to 60 million in 2006.
The data bottleneck
With the growth in computing power over the last 30
years, systems capable of producing 3D and even 4D
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Philips researchers working with Philips’ new cardiac modeling software that
automatically matches its heart model to the patient’s multi-slice CT scan, and
then creates a highly detailed patient-specific 3-D model from which a wide
range of morphological and physiological measurements can be extracted.
(adding time to show organ movement) representations of
our insides are now common. The new imaging capabilities
lead to more personalized organ models, better diagnosis
and easier surgical interventions. Yet these advances have
also led to a dilemma – clinicians now have access to so
much data, they don’t have time to deal with it all.
For instance, a single cardiac CT scan may generate
a sequence of ten 3D images, each made up of 300 2D
‘slices’. But analyzing all this data can take a highly trained
specialist an hour or more, time which is better spent on
face-to-face patient care.
Rapid analysis
According to Guido Pardo-Roques, Senior Director of
Global CT Research at Philips Healthcare, there’s a twopart
solution. “The first step is to decrease the time it takes
to produce images in order to provide more reliable clinical
information,” he says. “The second is to automate image
analysis enabling faster and more accurate diagnosis and
therefore treatment.”
The latter is where Philips has recently taken a big step
forward, as Jürgen Weese, Principal Scientist at Philips
Research, explains: “Speeding up image analysis is vital for
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the healthcare industry, especially in cardiac CT. To simplify
the work of healthcare professionals, we’ve developed
automated analysis techniques that provide an accurate
model of a person’s heart in just ten seconds.”
Besides its speed, the technology’s ability to provide
personalized models is truly innovative. Previously, doctors
planning a procedure or making a diagnosis had to rely
on generic 3D models and 2D images. But by using
advanced boundary-detection algorithms (see More),
Philips technology overlays the patient’s CT scan data onto
a standard reference model creating a patient-specific 3D
representation that greatly aids diagnosis.
A helping hand
The technology is also intended to help doctors in the
planning and execution of image-guided procedures such as
minimally invasive heart repair. A prime example is cardiac
radio-frequency ablation, a common intervention to correct
irregular heartbeat involving the insertion of a catheter into
the heart chambers. Until now, cardiologists relied on X-ray
fluoroscopy to guide their instruments. However, while
X-ray fluoroscopy shows bone and instruments clearly, it
reveals little of the structures of the heart.

Philips’ new automated analysis and 3D organmodeling
techniques allow a realistic model of the
patient’s heart to be superimposed on the fluoroscopy
images. As the model accurately describes the anatomy
and includes important clinical information such as cardiac
‘landmarks’ like heart valves, cardiologists can position
instruments more easily. Weese likens the effect to
switching the lights on in a dark room.
The technology has already been integrated into
Philips’ EP Navigator workstation and feedback from
clinical tests supports the idea that it may lead to a
significant breakthrough. Reza Razavi, Professor of
Pediatric Cardiovascular Science at King’s College, London
(UK), explains: “The software revolutionizes the ease
with which we can analyze the very large datasets that
are now being produced by our CT and MRI scanners.
Not only is this a great value in diagnostics, but it also
allows us to quickly integrate our 3D images into our Xray
interventional program, which is of particular help in
ablation of arrhythmias.”
Not just for the heart
Philips is not the only company pursuing ways to speed
image analysis. But the ability of its technology to create
More
The process of identifying the various
structures present in the image of an organ
is known as ‘segmentation’. The heart is
a challenging organ to segment because
of its numerous substructures and its
integration into the vascular system. Yet,
Philips’ technology manages to segment
the heart chambers and major vessels with
boundaries delineated and the volumes
www.medical.philips.com/main/clinicalsegments/ep
Marking the boundaries
annotated in just a few seconds.
To do that, it uses a mesh of 17,358
triangles to describe the heart’s geometry
in a 3D computer model. First, the system
goes through a learning phase, building
a reference model from a set of 30 to
40 reference segmentations enhanced
with a wealth of technical and anatomical
information.
dynamic and accurate models of the heart – showing the
four chambers, the myocardium and the major attached
vessels – puts it at the forefront of innovation.
Looking ahead, the team behind the technology is
working on extending it to all modalities, adding even
more detail and creating reference models for common
anatomical variants (for instance, patients with five
pulmonary veins rather than the normal four).
Personalized diagnosis
The team is also looking for ways to apply the techniques
to the entire body. They’ve already developed an
experimental system that extracts a 3D model of the lungs,
the ribcage and the spine from CT scans. Long term, the
hope is to help radiologists identify lung diseases and even
model a patient’s entire breathing process. This would
greatly improve accuracy and patient care in radiotherapy
image-guided treatments of lung tumors.
As these image-analysis and modeling techniques
continue to evolve, it appears that they not only provide
a way past the data bottleneck, but also open the door to
new levels of personalized diagnosis and treatment.
Next, the reference model is matched
to the patient’s heart images to create
a patient-specific model. This process
employs highly sophisticated borderdetection
algorithms that can identify
complex structures, position the triangles
and fix their vertices to give a robust and
accurate match between the model and
the image data.
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ExperienceLab
Using technology to create interactive
window displays.
To ensure that technological
developments are easy to use,
inventions need to be tested by
consumers themselves. ExperienceLab
is a unique laboratory where consumertested
innovation is top priority.
The lab, located at the High Tech
Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands,
provides the perfect setting for the
discovery of the practical, social and
psychological implications of upcoming
technologies.
In the lab, consumers use and
interact with new technologies and
applications, such as the Intelligent
Shop Window (shown here). The
Intelligent Shop Window concept
provides shop owners with new ways
to create interactive, higher-quality
shopping experiences and attract
more customers. It also allows
shoppers to access information about
the products on display – even when
the shop is closed.
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Making the
impossible
possible
Modern technology, such as email and the Internet,
has increased both our productivity and our workload.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could use this technology to
find a way to do twice as much in a day? It may sound like
a dream but the reality is not far off, according to Daniel
Burrus, a leading technology forecaster and author of the
best-selling book Technotrends.
As Burrus explains, the already speedy rate of technology
is about to dwarf anything we’ve seen so far and give us
some exciting options in the years ahead. “In the next five
years, we’re going to experience more technology-driven
change than we have in the last 15,” he notes. “Moore’s
Law says that the technology behind most devices – such
as processing power, bandwidth and storage capacity
– doubles every 18 months. This has held up for 40 years
but now things are moving incredibly faster.
“For example, it took 20 years to go from a fivemegahertz
chip to a 500-megahertz chip but to double
that took just eight months. And that was five years ago,”
Burrus emphasizes. “The curve is now going vertical, which
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means we can barely fathom the technology that will come
our way in the future.”
Twice the work in half the time
It’s this advance in technology that will make things even
more interesting – and give us our very own virtual
personal assistant, says Burrus. Soon you could wake up,
turn on the television and be greeted by your assistant
– available 24 hours a day, seven days a week without
complaints. After outlining your schedule for the day, your
assistant then updates you on a change in your travel plans
– your morning flight was cancelled. But not to worry: your
personal assistant has already re-booked you on another

y Brandy Vaughan Image: Burrus Research. Illustration: Roland Blokhuizen
flight and printed your boarding pass. At the airport, your
assistant tells you where to find a free spot in the parking
garage. Not enough time to research the company you’re
visiting? Not a problem, your assistant does the research for
you – in a nanosecond.
Waiting for the right buy price on stock you’d like to
own? The assistant can track stock prices and not only
inform you when it’s hit the target price but also buy the
stock for you – with a financial plug-in from your broker, of
course. Anxiously awaiting lab test results? Just download
the medical plug-in from your doctor and the wait will
soon be over. As soon as the results are entered into your
medical records, your assistant gives you the details.
Eventually, your assistant will learn from your requests and
begin to anticipate your needs, almost like thinking for itself.
The best part: as our assistants take care of logistics, we
can spend more time on the things we actually enjoy. “With
this, we could do almost twice as much in one day,” Burrus
notes. “And with the mountains of new information that
will be available in the future, having an assistant will quickly
become a necessity, much like owning a car.”
Best yet to come
In the healthcare field, there have also been tremendous
advancements in technology but the best is yet to come,
says Burrus. Besides e-enabled assisted living for patients
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20
and routine genetics mapping, we could soon have access
to a virtual hospital that performs tests from the comfort of
our own home. He offers the example of late-night heart
palpitations: is it a heart attack or just indigestion?
Currently our options are limited, Burrus says. “If I
experienced heart palpitations, I would have two options: I
could call an ambulance to take me to the emergency room
and after many hours and many tests, I could find out that
I only have indigestion – and a large bill. But on the other
hand, if I assume it’s indigestion and go back to sleep, I may
never wake up.”
But a virtual hospital opens up the options, he explains.
“I just turn on my television and choose the virtual
hospital’s admissions desk and give them my symptoms.
After pulling up my medical records using multiple
biometrics for identification, they then ask me to attach
an inexpensive bio-sensor to my chest so they can take
my vital signs, like blood pressure and pulse, and an EKG
reading – all virtually,” Burrus notes.
“The information instantly transfers to a real-life doctor
for analysis, and the doctor either asks me to come in for
further tests or suggests I take an indigestion pill,” he adds.
Password February 2008
Daniel Burrus
Daniel Burrus is one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists. He’s written
six books including the highly acclaimed Technotrends, which has been translated into more than a dozen
languages. Burrus is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a US-based research and consulting firm that
monitors global trends in science and technology. In 1983, Burrus became the first and only forecaster to
accurately identify 20 technologies that would later become the driving forces of business and economic
change for the coming decade.
“Imagine the time, stress and money a system like this
could save. With the rate of advancing technology, we
could see this within the next 15 years.”
Fraud-proof identification
Both the virtual assistant and ‘at-home hospitaling’ would
use biometrics for identification but Burrus insists that
neither privacy nor fraud will be an issue. “Biometrics
will soon become so advanced that fraud won’t be a
problem. We’ll see defense-industry technology pour
into the public domain and new biometrics will be
coming out that are almost impossible to steal, like the
blood vessel pattern embedded in our hands. We’ll also
use multiple biometrics like this to establish identity
depending on the level of security required.”
Another hot topic these days is climate change. But
will the new awareness impact technology? Actually, it
could be the other way around, says Burrus. “Technology
is only bound by the limits we give it as humans. If we
decide to use technology to solve global problems such as
climate change, then it can get us there. Technology has
the ability to turn the impossible into the possible.”

y Brandy Vaughan Images: Philips, Getty Images
A natural choice
As with other modern inventions, most of us would find it hard
to imagine life without an alarm clock. But it hasn’t always been
this way. Until relatively recently, humans depended solely on
the rising sun – and the natural light it produced – to wake up
each morning.
>
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22
So what happened? Our modern-day lifestyles often
demand that we start our days before sunrise, especially
during winter. Although it was deemed one of the most
hated inventions in a 2004 MIT survey, the alarm clock is still
the wake-up method of choice for most. As natural as this
may seem today, biologically it’s clearly an unnatural choice.
In the genes
Waking up to gradual light, as with the sunrise, is not only a
more gentle way to start the day, it’s actually deep-rooted
in the brain via a biological ‘wake-up process’ that our
bodies go through each morning – naturally initiated by light
not sound.
The process kicks off as our early-morning, lightsensitive
retinas detect the first hint of light. This
activates our internal biological ‘body clock’ located in the
hypothalamus region of the brain. This body clock uses light
and dark to regulate our daily wake-sleep patterns – a cycle
known as the circadian rhythm – through the production
of certain hormones and neurotransmitters that tell our
bodies when to wake up and when to sleep.
A hardwired response
Studies suggest that the hormone melatonin, released in
response to darkness, plays a key role in preparing our
bodies for sleep. Conversely, increasing light levels trigger
the production of ‘wake-up’ chemicals such as cortisol,
which is heavily involved in helping the body become alert
and energized after a night of sleep. As the main signal for
our bodies to switch from producing melatonin to releasing
cortisol, light is clearly an important aspect in our biological
wake-up process.
“Morning light is the most important light for
synchronizing our circadian rhythms,” explains Dr David
Password February 2008
Avery, a specialist on the connection between light and
sleep from the University of Washington, USA. “It’s not
natural to wake up in the dark. Our ancestors woke up
at dawn, whenever dawn came. It’s hardwired into our
brains and this doesn’t change just because we decide to
use an alarm clock.”
Fight or flight
While waking up to natural light is clearly best, it’s not
always easy to adjust your daily schedule according to
sunrise and sunset, especially in winter. Given many of
us have to wake up well before the sun, an alarm clock
is the most obvious solution. But when the alarm goes
off suddenly, sometimes at a near-deafening volume, we
jump from sound sleep to consciousness without giving
our bodies the time, or light, needed to stimulate the
natural wake-up cycle. Studies suggest this can cause us
to feel drowsy and less alert during the day.
There’s also evidence that waking up to the harsh and
sudden sound of the alarm can throw our bodies into
fight-or-flight mode, pumping our barely awake bodies
full of adrenaline – also known as the stress chemical.
While this may help you get to the office on time, it’s
certainly not the best way to start the day.
A more natural approach
So if the loud alarm clock we typically wake up to isn’t
such a good thing, what options are there? Other than
teaching yourself to wake up without stimulus, the
most talked about alternative is dawn simulation. It’s a
relatively new technique that involves a device much like
an alarm clock that uses gradually increasing light instead
of sound to wake you up. Mimicking a natural sunrise,
dawn simulation tricks the body into initiating the wake-

up process in a more natural way. Typically, light intensity
will slowly increase for 30 minutes before the scheduled
alarm goes off – often with a choice of sounds such as
ocean waves, birds or the traditional beep.
Recent studies show that participants using dawn
simulation reported feeling more alert and less tired,
which could be related to the proven increase in serotonin
levels after light exposure. Serotonin has long been linked
to improved moods and increased energy levels.
Another factor in feeling energized after waking
is cortisol release. Professor Angela Clow, from the
University of Westminster (UK), explains, “Waking up
with light helps the cortisol cycle efficiently regulate
other bodily systems, which could explain why people
find waking up with dawn simulation beneficial to how
they feel during the day.”
In sync
Dawn simulation has also been shown to help keep our
internal body clocks in sync. “All living organisms operate
on night and day cycles and these physiological processes
can become delayed, particularly in winter, meaning it
takes longer for our bodies to switch from nighttime
to daytime activities,” Clow says. “But dawn simulation
helps trigger and regulate these cycles while slowly
waking you up.”
New evidence reveals that dawn simulation can
also positively affect sleep, according to a recent study
conducted at the University Medical Center Groningen
in the Netherlands. Dr Ybe Meesters who headed
the study notes, “The benefits of dawn simulation in a
normal healthy population are easier awakening and an
improvement in sleep quality, therefore improving quality
of life, especially in the winter.”
Putting experience into creation
Although research on dawn simulation is a relatively
new field of study, so far all studies show a beneficial
correlation between dawn simulation and how users feel
upon waking up. This was enough to inspire Philips to
leverage more than 100 years of experience in lighting
technology to develop a ‘Wake-up Light’ more advanced
than all others in terms of light intensity (lux), a key factor
in how well the wake-up process goes.
As Dennis Schuilenburg, a business manager
in Philips’ Consumer Lifestyle Sector, points out,
“During development, we focused on real consumers in
real-life situations. Through this we found that although
everyone is different, many people need around 250-
300 lux to awaken fully in the morning. But this lux level
is difficult to achieve in a small unit because of heatdispersion
issues.”
He adds, “For this reason most companies still
produce an alarm clock with a small light of around 50
lux. We focused instead on developing an alarm clock
that is a lamp first and foremost, therefore overcoming
the heat-dispersion problem. It was only through
intensive research that we discovered this was the best
way forward.”
Schuilenburg also explains that when determining
the light curve, only the best prototype would do. “It’s
important that light intensity increases very gradually,
so users don’t wake up too early,” he says. “So we
developed the light curve for the Wake-up Light to match
the light curve of the rising sun.”
The next best thing to a natural sunrise, the Philips
Wake-up Light has become so popular, the biggest
challenge is keeping up with strong demand. All we need
now is someone to make breakfast.
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24 Password February 2008
Saving time,
saving lives

y Brandy Vaughan and Peter Harold Images: Philips, Getty Images
According to the World Health Organization, more than 15
million people suffer from stroke each year worldwide. Of
these, five million die and another five million are permanently
disabled. When stroke hits, quick treatment can easily be the
difference between life and death as oxygen-deprived brain
cells begin to die at the alarming rate of 32,000 per second.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the number
one cause of disability in North America and Western
Europe. But the number of healthy survivors could be
much larger if treatment is administered more rapidly.
Unless a stroke is treated within a few hours, victims are
likely to suffer significant, and often permanent, disability
– if not death.
Rule of thirds
According to Jon Barrick, Chief Executive of the UK-based
Stroke Association, “Stroke clinicians talk about a ‘rule of
thirds’ with stroke – a third are likely to die, a third become
permanently disabled and a third recover. But we believe
that this ‘rule of thirds’ can and should be broken. If the
time between the onset of a stroke and diagnosis was no
more than three hours, a significant number of people
would have a much better chance of avoiding death or
disability. But all too often, there are severe delays.”
Many of the delays Barrick refers to are due to the
varying symptoms of stroke that can differ widely from
one patient to another, often mimicking other conditions.
Adding to the difficulty of diagnosis, the signs of a
stroke may begin suddenly or develop over many days
– sometimes even temporarily improving – depending upon
the type of stroke and area of the brain affected.
To ensure that potential stroke patients get treatment
as quickly as possible, emergency paramedics must make
a preliminary diagnosis within minutes. To help them,
screening tools, such as the Los Angeles Prehospital Stroke
Screen (LAPSS), have been developed to give paramedics
a set of questions and a corresponding decision ‘tree’ to
help them determine if a stroke alert should be sent to an
appropriate hospital.
When time is critical
The rapid rate of new healthcare technology begs the
question: surely we can find a way to speed up the
treatment process? It’s possible, but quick treatment
demands quick diagnosis.
The new ‘Stroke Angel’ software, developed by Philips
Research and the subject of several recent pilot studies in
Germany, could help accelerate the process from the start.
Running on a standard handheld computer, the Stroke Angel
automates standard screening tools such as the LAPSS.
Using information entered by the paramedic, it provides a
recommendation on whether or not to send a stroke alert.
It can even be programmed to identify nearby
hospitals with suitable stroke-care units. This is key, as
often paramedics under intense pressure have trouble
remembering which hospitals are equipped to give stroke
victims the life-saving treatment that some require.
Several studies show that stroke patients fare significantly
better when treated by dedicated stroke teams with
specialized protocols.
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Paramedics can also instruct the Stroke Angel to
wirelessly transmit a stroke alert to the hospital together
with the victim’s screening information. This gives the
hospital time to prepare – such as alerting the stroke
team and freeing up critical resources such as a CT or
MRI scanner so that diagnosis and treatment can begin
as soon as the patient arrives.
The right diagnosis
Once the patient arrives at the hospital, stroke diagnosis
is still not easy – even for experienced stroke specialists.
All too often, stroke patients suffer from disorientating
symptoms that can cause confusion and disable the
patient’s ability to communicate clearly with doctors.
And a doctor must not only determine if the patient has
suffered from a stroke but also which type of stroke from
several possibilities – a life or death decision in itself.
The two most common types of stroke are ischemic
stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. Ischemic stroke, which
accounts for around 80% of stroke cases, is typically
A screenshot of the Stroke Navigator
Password February 2008
caused by a blood clot blocking blood flow to a certain
part (or parts) of the brain. Blood clots can form either
within the brain itself or travel to the brain from other
areas of the body.
The second most common type of stroke is
hemorrhagic stroke caused by bleeding within the brain
or surrounding tissues resulting from a ruptured blood
vessel. This type of stroke not only prevents blood from
reaching parts of the brain but can also damage brain
tissue around the hemorrhage site and result in a build-up
of pressure in the skull, causing extensive and often lifethreatening
damage.
Different treatments
Making a differential diagnosis between these two types
of stroke is extremely important because the treatments
are radically different. In fact, the treatment for ischemic
stroke can be fatal if administered to a hemorrhagic
stroke victim. For this and other reasons, stroke is a
potentially life-threatening condition that can deteriorate

quickly unless the right diagnosis and treatment decisions
are made. With the pressure on, doctors have to be
vigilant at every point in the care cycle.
To help with this, Philips Research is developing
the ‘Stroke Navigator’ that can provide hospital
clinicians with a valuable tool to support and coordinate
diagnosis and treatment. Linked to the hospital’s patient
information system, it has been designed to create
a complete patient profile based on the screening
information and patient history, and then track every
procedure performed, together with test results.
This information is combined with pre-programmed
expert knowledge, probability rates and clinical
decision guidelines for the treatment of stroke. The
Stroke Navigator then analyzes the information to give
diagnostic and therapeutic suggestions.
“With Stroke Angel and Stroke Navigator, we’re trying
to bring more simplicity to stroke diagnosis by making it
easier for paramedics and physicians to pull together all
the information they need to make the best decisions,”
More
Around 25 million people worldwide suffer
from dementia, and it’s estimated that
this number could easily double by 2040.
Dementia is the end result of a number of
progressive degenerative diseases of the
brain, the most common being Alzheimer’s
disease. Most neurodegenerative diseases
begin years before significant symptoms
show up. But unfortunately, most current
treatments only provide symptomatic
relief in the mild to moderate stages of the
disease but do not arrest its progression.
Recognizing this, Philips Research
and the University Medical Center
Hamburg-Eppendorf are jointly
developing a computer-aided diagnostic
system (CAD) that would use both
positron emission tomography (PET)
and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
data to assist specialists in diagnosing
neurodegenerative disease. As with
stroke, a diagnosis not only determines
whether the disease is present but also
which type it is.
Both PET and MRI are useful for
revealing abnormalities in the brain and
distinguishing between the different
types of neurodegenerative disease. In
explains Charles Lagor, Senior Research Member at the
North American division of Philips Research.
With the right information, the Stroke Navigator
can provide a continuously updated probability of
whether the patient has suffered an ischemic stroke, a
hemorrhagic stroke or whether the patient is a so-called
‘stroke mimic’ (someone suffering from a non-vascular
disease that produces stroke-like symptoms). The Stroke
Navigator can then suggest the next steps for treatment
together with single-click operations to initiate them
– such as a request for an urgent CT scan.
“Such tools don’t require the development of
new technology,” Lagor notes. “What they do require is
a thorough understanding of clinician and patient
needs so that you can apply existing technologies in
innovative ways.”
Following a stroke, victims cannot afford to lose time.
Every minute that goes by is a matter of life or death.
And in this fight for survival, combining technology and
innovation can have a real impact: it can save lives.
Advanced dementia diagnosis
the early stages of the disease, however,
the PET images are particularly difficult to
interpret and CAD systems can be helpful
to specialists.
Dr Lothar Spies, head of the Digital
Imaging Research Group at Philips
Research, describes what sets the
new system apart: “This is not the first
computer-aided system to provide
assistance in diagnosing dementia. Other
systems, however, rely on data from just
one modality – typically PET. But this is a
multi-modality CAD system integrating
data from both PET and MRI scans.”
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Did you know...
50 men
“One machine can do the work of 50
ordinary men. No machine can do
the work of one extraordinary man”
Elbert Hubbard, American writer and philosopher.
8-ton lightbulb
The world’s largest lightbulb stands 13 feet tall, weighs
eight tons and is illuminated at night. It sits atop the
Thomas Edison Memorial Tower in New Jersey, USA.
The tower, which was built in 1937, is located on the spot
where Edison invented the modern-day incandescent bulb.
28 Password February 2008
70% lifestyle
In a recent BBC poll of 22,000
people in 21 countries, 70% of
respondents said they were
prepared to change their
lifestyles to help mitigate
climate change – including
people in the USA and
China, the world’s two
biggest emitters of
carbon dioxide.
Award winners
First light
The first city in the world
to install electric street
lighting was Godalming,
UK, in 1881.
At the 2007-2008 European
Imaging and Sound Association
(EISA) conference, Philips won two
prestigious EISA awards in the ‘Full High Definition
LCD TV’ and ‘Compact Home Theater System’
categories. Winners were selected based on product
innovation and design by editors from 49 leading
European magazines specializing in multimedia.

No further
“Inventions have long
since reached their limit,
and I see no hope for
further developments”
Julius Sextus Frontinus, Roman
engineer in the year 10 AD.
13,000 sheets
Research conducted by IBM
estimates that the average
office-based employee
generates as much as 13,000
pieces of paper annually.
LED palace
It costs just € 0.45 per hour to light
Buckingham Palace with the new LEDbased
lighting system installed by Philips.
$2.8 million lamp
The highest amount paid for a lamp at
a Christie’s auction was a Tiffany Lotus
design that sold for $2.8 million in 1997.
Marble marvel
The first recorded patent
for an industrial invention
was granted in 1421
to the engineer Filippo
Brunelleschi in Florence,
Italy. The patent gave him
a three-year monopoly
on the manufacturing of
a barge with hoisting gear
to transport marble.
Password February 2008
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y Cedric Collet Images: Philips, Michel Klop
30
Behind the nano
Life has been moving at warp speed for Erik Bakkers,
senior scientist and project leader at Philips Research, ever
since winning one of the industry’s most prestigious awards
– Technology Review’s ‘Young Innovator under 35’.
With just 35 winners out of a pool of 300, the competition
for the award was intense. So what’s the secret behind
Erik’s success? The answer lies in his groundbreaking
nanotechnology research. After years of work, Erik finally
found a way to do something previously unheard of when he
discovered a method for combining semiconductors made
of different materials on the same microchip – allowing for
faster, more efficient semiconductor technology. Here Erik
opens up about what he does inside and outside the lab.
What’s a typical day like for you?
Actually, every day is different. After checking emails, I make
rounds through the labs and check on how the projects
are progressing. As a project leader, I guide doctoral and
post-doc students through the research process. Maybe then
I’ll work on a peer review for a journal or meet with some
project collaborators, like university professors, to discuss
our joint projects. Since every project now has to have a
business plan, I spend time doing market research, keeping
track of what others are working on, seeing where our
research will fit in and how we should approach it.
Password February 2008
Can you describe an interesting project that you are
working on?
Right now, I’m looking at nanowire sensors to detect
things like proteins and DNA. The sensor is very small and
sensitive yet has a large surface so it’s good for bacteria
testing. For instance, if you have a bacterial infection and
go to the hospital, it’s important to know exactly what it is
as soon as possible in order to treat it properly. But with
current technology it takes three to four days to determine
the specific type of infection.
To reduce this time and allow for earlier treatment,
we’re working on a lab-on-a-chip solution that has
necessary chemical processes embedded in the chip, which
makes it easier to use saliva or blood on the spot to detect
exactly which bacteria or virus is causing the infection. The
first generation is already out, so we’re focusing on the
second generation to reduce the analysis time even further.
What do you like best about your job?
I really like the multidisciplinary approach we take with
research projects. We’re constantly thinking of new ways

Erik Bakkers, seen here with a colleague,
is currently working on lab-on-a-chip
solutions.
to expand and apply our research. It helps that there’s a
cooperative mindset here as well as world-class facilities.
And when we finish a project, it’s great to see the final
results in practice, no longer in theory.
What was the best thing about winning the Technology
Review award?
All the winners were invited to a follow-up conference
at MIT where I gave two presentations on my research.
I also participated in a panel discussion on the future of
microchip technology. There was a great debate about the
way forward as features get smaller and clock frequencies
More
Because of variations in expansion
rates when heated, combining different
materials in one semiconductor device
was almost a mission impossible. When
attempted, the incredible physical
strain led to reduced performance. But
thinking outside the box, Erik Bakkers
Outside the box
and his team created the circuits out of
nanowires, which decreased the strain
as the point of contact between the
semiconductors was minimized to mere
tens of nanometers.
This technique of mixing semiconductors
on the same chip paves the
increase. Overall, the conference was very interactive and
forward thinking.
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in the lab?
I can think of two things: traveling around the world or
working for a company that specializes in mergers and
takeovers – being involved in such a dynamic and fast-paced
field would be quite exciting.
How do you spend your time outside the lab?
I love to cycle and play squash. But there’s less time for those
activities now that my two children keep me busy.
way for multipurpose chips that could
revolutionize mobile and computer
technology through less power usage yet
faster processing speeds. Even better: it
could easily translate into cheaper – and
more technologically advanced – mobile
phones and computers in the near future.
Password February 2008
31

A new day, a new career...
Philips is the leading Dutch company in terms of products and innovation,
according to the Global Reputation Top 200 ranking, published in May 2007
by the US-based Reputation Institute. Philips Research has 1,800 technology
researchers worldwide creating the future today. Join us and make a difference.
www.philips.com