the saatchi & saatchi innovation award 2002 ......................................................................................................................................................................
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the saatchi & saatchi innovation award 2002
winner announced, new york, 27 may 2003 http://www.saatchi-saatchi.com/innovation --- brief : an idea that had the greatest potential benefit to humanity. --- award: worth US$100,000, is made by ideas company, saatchi & saatchi on a biennial basis. its purpose is to recognize and promote ideas that have the potential to revolutionize and improve communication around the world. --- winner: inspired idea to light up lives of billions. its third recipient, professor dave irvine-halliday, an electrical engineer from the university of calgary, canada, is the inventor of a technology that finally makes cheap, durable, low-power lighting a possiblity for homes in the developing world. a world-changing idea which could illuminate the lives of more than two billion people who have previously had very limited access to power, has won the third saatchi & saatchi innovation in communication award. about two billion people in remote areas of developing nations have no access to electric light, a commodity that the rest of the world takes for granted. kerosene-burning lamps are the common source of illumination in many places, but the fuel is expensive and difficult to obtain. it also has adverse effects on both eyesight and breathing. irvine-halliday’s system combines white light emitting diodes, similar to the sort found in LED alarm clocks, into a multi-diode lamp. the lamp is powered by a battery, recharged with a pedal generator. able to light an entire rural village with less energy than a conventional 100-watt bulb, it is at once efficient, affordable, and environmentally benign. --- finalists: the finalist projects of the third award, were as diverse as they were inspired. they included an early-warning systemfor major earthquakes, a rechargeable battery-driven projector which could overcome obstacles to third-world education, a system of ‘artificial’ vision for the blind, a unique digital ‘canvas’ inspired by a fly’s eye and a revolutionary way to restore movement in spinally-injured patients. --- jury: the award’s judging panel included lateral thinking pioneer edward de bono, artist, composer and musician david byrne, supercomputer inventor danny hillis, sony executive VP dr kenji kitatani, media artist john maeda, NASA astronaut and scientist dr story musgrave and opera, film and theatre director julie taymor. --- prize: as well as a US $50,000 cash grant, saatchi & saatchi will contribute the equivalent in marketing services to irvine halliday’s charitable foundation, the 'light up the world' project, to help his idea reach as many people as possible. --- the call for entries designboom report http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/saatchi.html --- previous award winners: the winner of the 1998 award was leslie kay, a cold war veteran who worked on sonar systems for submarines. for years, he had been convinced that his specialist knowledge could be deployed to help blind people ‘see with sound’. his invention was a device that used sonar signals to do just that. the winner of the second award, in the year 2000, was david lussey and his colleagues at the peratech company in north yorkshire, england.they had developed a revolutionary class of electrically conductive composites - 'QTCs' – that when incorporated into a textile, had the unique ability to respond to human touch. --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	innovation in communication award poster saatchi & saatchi, 2002 professor dave irvine-halliday and the winning project the 'light up the world' generator award announced - kevin roberts, saatchi & saatchi’s CEO worldwide award convenor bob Iisherwood (saatchi & saatchi’s worldwide creative director), winner dave irvine-halliday and media artist john maeda a view into the exhibition ace gallery, the ny location of the award ceremony