ITRI paper-thin flexible loudspeaker won Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Awards

Online, October 6, 2009 (Newswire.com) - The Wall Street Journal announced the winners of its 2009 global Technology Innovation Awards on September 14. Taiwan's ITRI, which paper-thin flexible loudspeaker (fleXpeaker) technology project was supported by Ministry of Economic Affairs, won in the consumer-electronics category. ITRI stood out from over 500 first rate competitors across the world, beating internationally-reputed conglomerates including HP, Livescribe, Motorola, etc. and carried back the grand award. This is the first time Taiwan's technology won recognition in research and development from the Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal points out 「Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, or ITRI, won in the consumer-electronics category for its work developing a paper-thin, flexible speaker. Researchers at ITRI, devised a way to create arrays of tiny speaker that can be combined to produce high-fidelity speaker systems of almost any size. Because the FleXpeaker is lightweight and consumes little power, it could be attractive for use in cellphones or in car sound systems. Other possible applications include giant banners that could be used to deliver public-service announcements in train stations or advertising messages in shopping malls. ITRI is seeking to license the technology or create a spinoff company to commercialize the product.ã€

The Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards has all along been highly acclaimed internationally. Since its commencement in 2001, this year is its 9th annual award and there have been numerous competitors every year. At this annual award, 16 judges came from various nations from across the world including reputed research institutes of various fields, joint venture companies and experts and scholars of reputed enterprises. The award not only stresses innovation of technology itself, but also application and commercialization and market potential which are indices of extreme importance for the examination board. Like the low-price automobile of India's Tata Motors selected by Wall Street Journal and widely acclaimed on the market 2 years later after its debut.