Pictures of the Future - Patents & Innovations

Energy-Saving LEDs Illuminate Runways

LED runway lights are economical, robust, miniature and maintenance-free

Until recently, experts thought only halogen lamps could meet the high safety standards for lighting airport runways during take-offs and landings. The consensus was that the luminous efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was not up to the task. Unconvinced, Jean-Claude Vandevoorde of Industrial Solutions and Services in Belgium began intensive research into airport lighting. Equipped with high-performance LEDs, the lighting systems he developed are now in use on runways at airports in Brussels, Vancouver and Cincinnati. These LEDs have several benefits: They have much shorter reaction times and use up to 70 % less electricity than halogen lamps. They don’t have to be made of heat-proof material and are largely immune to corrosion and the ageing effects of extreme temperatures. And they have a service life of up to 20 years. This eliminates the need for expensive runway-maintenance work, which lowers costs and increases safety. In the past eight years, Vandevoorde has registered 21 inventions.

Louise Christensen

Chin Up in the Car of the Future

Displays developed by Heinz-Bernhard Abel will be able to automatically adapt to individual driving situations

Many of the inventions created by Dr. Heinz-Bernhard Abel of Siemens VDO in Babenhausen, Germany, are associated with "head-up displays" for cars. These displays use mirror systems to project important information—such as speed or navigation tips—onto the windshield. To a motorist, the information appears to be floating above the hood of the car, and that means there’s no need for the driver to continually look away from the road and then refocus on the traffic situation. Not only is this convenient; it also makes a substantial contribution to the safety of all drivers and passengers on the road. Abel’s latest invention centers on a technique for controlling how a reading is to be displayed. It allows displays to be used in a way that’s suitable for any imaginable situation. The manner in which information is conveyed depends on the driving conditions of the moment or how much strain the driver is being subjected to, for instance. This enhances the driver’s ability to perceive warnings or other safety-related notifications, and that contributes to making streets and highways safer. In the future, the system will automatically identify the situation the car is in and then set the display properties of the appropriate instruments. Since the mid-1990s, Abel has come up with 18 inventions, several of which have been patented and implemented in products. The inventor also collaborated on the head-up display now used in the new Series 5 BMW.

Louise Christensen

Wristband with RFID

Always 100% informed: Doctors know their patients’ case histories almost from the moment they shake hands

In the future, hospital treatment could become simpler for physicians and more transparent for patients—thanks to a radio wristband from Siemens that contains a 0.5-mm² radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. To ensure data privacy, instead of storing the patient file, the chip stores the file’s Web address on a central computer that can be dialed up by an authorized doctor—even from mobile devices. As part of a pilot project at the Jacobi Medical Center in New York, Siemens Business Services has provided more than 200 patients with the radio wristbands. Doctors can read out the data with an RFID-enabled PDA, and if a patient is sent to the x-ray station, for instance, the physician there can immediately work with the digital patient file and add data such as diagnoses or x-ray images. Siemens is also developing an innovative RFID watch. With the help of antennas around the hospital grounds, a person wearing the watch can be located to within two meters. Patients wear a sensor on their chests that also measures their heartbeat and sends the data to the watch, which then transmits the readings to the doctor. So high-risk patients are always under medical supervision—even in the hospital park, for instance.

Early, Accurate Diagnosis

Siemens’ SPECT·CT combines the benefits of nuclear medicine and computer tomography

To provide earlier and more accurate diagnoses, Siemens has combined two imaging processes into one instrument. The True Point SPECT·CT technology combines nuclear medicine-based SPECT (Single Photon Emission CT) diagnostics with computer tomography. The x-ray images from computer tomography are used to obtain high-resolution 3D images of the inside of the body. SPECT, however, is based on the detection of small quantities of radioactive substance that accumulate in certain organs. The emitted gamma radiation is recorded by a special camera. SPECT not only lets physicians and doctors draw inferences on body and cell functions; it can identify pathological changes at a very early stage. However, compared to computer tomography, SPECT images have a lower spatial resolution, so the two methods are combined to reap the benefits of each. As a result, it is possible to improve diagnoses of cancer, heart diseases and nervous disorders. The technology will be launched on the German market beginning in June 2005.

Cell Phone Photo Diary

Picture chronicle on a display. Thanks to GPS, software can link cell phone photos with locations

Siemens developers have written software that cell phone users will be able to use to keep a mobile photo diary. When combined with the GPS satellite navigation system, photographs taken by a mobile phone camera can be provided with location data. If the images are then linked to a digital map, the locations where they were taken can be indicated in appropriate sections of the map. With a Bluetooth-enabled input device (for example, a digital pen or mouse) it’s also possible to link handwritten notes or voice messages to the photos and send these too. In the future, the program could also run on a large cell phone display. The monitor shows a section of a map that displays each digital photo as a thumbnail image, and a user clicks on the image to enlarge it. A menu at the bottom of the screen lists the pictures chronologically. By labeling the photos with information on when and where they were taken—during a trip or at a trade fair, for example—experiences and events can be chronologically documented.