Innovation Pipeline

Philips Research has been a wellspring of innovation
for 90 years. It recently filed for patent number
100,000. Rick Harwig began his career there in 1978,
working on process solutions for integrated circuits. He
was named CEO earlier this year. As Philips’ chief technology
officer, Harwig is also responsible for the worldwide
Philips Research portfolio. Harwig says among his
primary concerns will be furthering an open-innovation
process with industrial partners to bring new products
to market.

Innovation Pipeline: How is the nature of research
changing at Philips and elsewhere?

Rick Harwig: Over the past few years there has been a
market tornado, a tremendous speeding-up of products
being readied for market. Part of the reason is that we
have grown from closed corporate laboratories into an
open-innovation model and learned how to cooperate
with competitors to bring new technologies to market.
The world of technology has become so complicated that
a single company can’t master all the technology and
business processes.

IP: What are some of Philips’ recent advances?

RH: One of our recent efforts is the incubation of
Silicon Hive. It is designed for radio applications, specifically
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing. It
achieves higher performance and lower power consumption
in a very small silicon footprint. Another area of concentration
is polymer electronics and electronic paper.

IP: How does Europe compare to the U.S. in turning lab
technologies into companies?

RH: Our startup culture is not as pronounced. We are
more risk averse. But when a startup flies, it usually flies
quite well. Those departments and divisions that have
been spun out of Philips, we cooperate with them and
they become part of our internal business group. It is not
done the same way in the U.S.

IP: Philips Research has been working on ambient intelligence
for the home, building intelligence into the electronics
and living spaces so they interact with people.
What strides have you made recently in this area?

RH: We have been working on intelligent personal care,
which aims to make time spent in the bathroom easier,
more effective and more relaxing. We have smart mirrors,
which have LCD screens behind them. The mirror itself
gives feedback on your health, reminding you to spend
more time at the gym. It can also provide your schedule
for the day, or even an educational cartoon for kids to
help them brush their teeth.

IP: Are you doing research in the area of RFID technology?

RH: Yes. And this seems like a bit of magic to most
people. We can tie objects, say something from a holiday,
to pictures from that trip. So the act of just dropping that
object on a table might trigger a photograph of the trip
to be displayed on a screen in the room.

IP: What innovations do you see on the horizon, 10
years out?

RH: In the next 20 years we see more innovations happening
on the molecular level. In medicine, for example,
we will push sensors to detect cancerous tumors on the
molecular level at the very early stages of development.
The art of interaction between the virtual world and the
real world will become very fascinating as we push further
into the nano world.