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 

MediaPartners LoyaliteitsCommunicatie 

Stroombaan 4 

1181 VX Amstelveen 

The Netherlands 

www.mediapartners.nl 

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 



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) 

5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands 

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 


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 

3



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 


5

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 


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/ 


7


y Brandy Vaughan Images: Philips, Michel Klop, Getty Images 


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 


9

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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. 


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 


11

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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 


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 


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. 


15


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 


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 


19

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. 


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. 

> 


21

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 


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. 


23


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. 


25

26 

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 


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.” 


27

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. 


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. 


29

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. 


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. 


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

A visionary experience - Philips Research

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