Tata Elxsi’s Smart Assistive Wearable Wins International iF Design Award

Bangalore, February 12, 2020 Tata Elxsi, a global design company that blends technology, creativity, and engineering, has won this year's iF Design Award, a world-renowned award for design excellence. Tata Elxsi won this award for its innovative and exceptional design concept for Mixed Reality (MR) Based Smart Assistive Wearable Devices.

These devices have been designed by the company to help people with special needs such as Autism or Alzheimer’s to deal with social situations, which they might otherwise find difficult. The system is deliberately discreet and the clever use of audio ensures others in the environment are less aware of the support being provided. For example, the device may help people recognize a person whose name they may have forgotten, or support the individual in stressful situations by playing music or pre-recorded calming phrases.

The devices employ Mixed Reality by taking information from input devices like discrete wearable cameras driving facial and environment recognition and microphones then feeding back to the user using earphones / earbuds and sound collars. These devices in turn help users to participate in social interactions by giving them subtle guides in the form of audio cues.

Jack Quarmby - Designer at Tata Elxsi London Studio said, “We were interested in MR solutions that did not require headsets or visual feedback, which we believe may not be appropriate for everyone. A combination of ‘natural vision’ for environment perception, combined with augmented audio seemed to open up interesting use cases. Seeing this as an opportunity, we designed an innovative solution, which is less intrusive than an obvious ‘wearable’ and yet has the potential to be chic, smart, and desirable. These devices use face and environment recognition cameras which are designed to empower the users to provide support in an active but understated way.”

Nick Talbot – Head of Design & Innovation at Tata Elxsi said, “Getting recognized globally for our work is really rewarding. This award is a testament to Tata Elxsi's multi-disciplinary design and technology teams for creating world-class solutions across industries. For these MR-based Smart Assistive devices, we see real-world application opportunities in healthcare, social care, augmented retail experiences, entertainment through audio gaming, and others that would be of interest to service providers and solution providers in these segments.”

Dating back to 1953, the iF Design Awards is an international design competition organized by Germany's oldest independent design organization, Hannover-based iF International Forum Design GmbH. This year, a total of 7298 entries were submitted from 56 nations. An expert 78 member jury from more than 20 countries made up of independent experts in industry, design, and architecture from all over the world adjudged the winners.

The video of the design concept for Mixed Reality (MR) Based Smart Assistive Wearable Devices.

About Tata Elxsi

Tata Elxsi is a fully integrated global design and technology consultancy, creating innovative products, services and experiences to build brands and help businesses grow. It has a multi-disciplinary team of over 6000 design researchers, strategists, product, UX / UI designers, technologists and engineers. Tata Elxsi helps clients globally to bring new ideas and award-winning products and services to market. For over 30 years, we have been helping brands differentiate and win.

About the iF Design Award

For over 60 years, the iF Design Award has been recognized as an arbiter of quality for exceptional design. The iF label is renowned worldwide for outstanding design services, and the iF Design Award is one of the most important design prizes in the world. Submissions are awarded in the following disciplines: Product, Packaging, Communication, and Service Design, Architecture and Interior Architecture as well as Professional Concepts. All awarded entries are featured on the iF WORLD DESIGN GUIDE, in the iF design app and are displayed at the iF design exhibition Hamburg.

Media Contact:
Kalyani Kasara
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Website: www.tataelxsi.com