article - Philips Research

Main article
An open heart to the digital home
Media centers represent the convergence of PCs and
consumer electronics (CE) products such as DVDs, settop
boxes and MP3 players into a single ‘digital hub’. While
the leading current generation of media centers is exciting
and offers universal compatibility, keeping them that way is
going to be an enormous challenge – even for the largest
companies. Therefore, Philips proposes an ‘Open Media
Center’ platform.
Password is a quarterly magazine
published by Philips Research.
Philips Research, part of Royal Philips
Electronics, has fi ve main laboratories
in three continents where 2100
researchers investigate promising
options for innovation.
Editor-in-chief
Peter van den Hurk
E-mail:
peter.j.van.den.hurk@philips.com
Production management
Claudia van Roosmalen
Erica Schrijvers
6
Distribution management
Cees Jan Mol
Erica Schrijvers
Editorial Board
Prof. Dr Emile Aarts, the Netherlands
Dr Tobias Helbig, United Kingdom
Dr Peter Wierenga, the Netherlands
Dr Thomas Zängel, Germany
Ellen de Vries, the Netherlands
Dr Satyen Mukherjee, USA
Design and Art Direction
Storm Scott, Eindhoven
6
Printer & Lithography
Roto Smeets Services, Eindhoven
In this issue Editorial
Main article
6 An open heart to the digital home
Features
16 Technology
Re-imagining radio
24 Lifestyle
Entertaible – Making electronic games more sociable
Further in this issue
4 What’s new
12 Another perspective
Joining forces to create better transistor models
14 Technology news
20 Joint contribution
Expanding boundaries - Creating a world of seamless
connectivity
Other contributors to this issue
William Third
More information
and subscription
Philips Research Public Relations Dept
Prof. Holstlaan 4
5656 AA Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Tel. +31-40-27 43403
Fax +31-40-27 44947
E-mail:
prpass@natlab.research.philips.com
See also
www.research.philips.com
© KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS
ELECTRONICS N.V. 2006
All rights reserved
Articles may be reproduced in whole
or in part provided that the source
‘Philips Research Password’ is
mentioned in full; photographs and
illustrations for this purpose are
available via the above-mentioned
website. The editor would appreciate a
complimentary copy.
As Bob Dylan so famously sang “For the times, they are a-changin’”,
and that was 42 years ago. There has been no let up since.
Change is continuous and it is now taking place at an even
faster pace than we could have ever imagined. Change, and making
choices has become an integral part of our everyday lives,
all the time, everywhere.
“ Change, and making choices has become
an integral part of our everyday lives, all
the time, everywhere. ”
For example, the increasing number of coexisting, competing and
evolving standards in mobile communications can sometimes make
life more complex rather than easier – which choice should you
make? New approaches in an apparently mature area such as radio
communications lead the way towards greater simplicity: with
software-defi ned radio technologies, using a combination of
software and controllable hardware to cover multiple standards,
we are still fi nding new ways of making mobile communication
easier to use.
At home, consumers currently often face a number of choices
when attempting to organize their collection of digital content
– photos, songs, videos - and accessing an ever-expanding number
of digital media channels. Innovative home media centers seem to
Continuous
change is a
way of living
be the answer for now, but even with these, a growing number of
standards will make it diffi cult to keep fi nding the right, simple
solutions in the future. Industry collaboration is a viable way
forward to migrate existing product offerings into harmonized,
universal solutions.
On January 5th, 2006, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES),
we showed a prototype of ‘Entertaible’, a new vision on electronic
gaming. It is a tabletop gaming platform that marries traditional
multi-player board and computer games in a uniquely simple and
intuitive way, allowing players to engage in a new class of more
sociable electronic games. This is true change and innovation - to
take two ‘older’ concepts, and combine them into something
completely new that may alter your perception of a table forever.
In December last year, the joint PSP (Penn-State Philips)
transistor model was chosen by the CMC (Compact Model
Council) as the industry-wide standard for future nanometer chip
design. This again shows that continuously thinking and acting
beyond our own boundaries and choosing best-in-class partners in
a spirit of Open Innovation really moves us forward.
Rick Harwig,
CEO Philips Research
2 Philips Research Password 26 l February 2006 Philips Research Password 26 3
l February 2006