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Konica Minolta Wins Good Design Award 2017 for Five Products
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Tokyo (October 20, 2017) - Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) is pleased to announce that the company has been awarded the Good Design Award 2017 by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP) for the following five products.
Award-winning products
- Care Support Solution
- AeroDR 3, a cassette-type digital X-ray system
- CM-M6, a multi-angle spectrophotometer
- Infinium Σ, an optical planetarium
- Konica Minolta Planetarium "MANTEN"
Reasons for winning the award
Care Support Solution
A solution for enhancing the efficiency of caregiving work in its entirety through workflow innovation
Feature of the design
The product is designed as an indispensable system for care facilities, to enable caregivers to work effectively.
Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
In Japan, the population is aging more rapidly than in any other country in the world, creating an urgent need to develop efficient caregiving services. Ways to reduce the workload of caregivers and increase their work efficiency to compensate for the shortage of workers are being explored. In developing the Care Support Solution, Konica Minolta investigated carefully to the needs of caregiving facilities, and appropriately distinguished between tasks that can be left to the system and tasks that only human staff can provide. The result is a sustainable care service with less stress on both caregivers and care recipients.
We hope such advanced care services will be made more widely available so that Japanese society will be the world’s most friendly for the elderly.
AeroDR 3, a cassette-type digital X-ray system
A digital X-ray system for medical use characterized by lower dose, light weight, high durability, and improved handling
Feature of the design
The shape of the product allows a radiography technologist to hold its body with ease and it causes less stress on the patient.
Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
The product successfully balances the trade-off between high resolution, thinner body, and higher durability, with ease of handling at medical sites, by providing a recess along the edge of the body. This is surely the result of the designers’ unceasing pursuit of perfection. Konica Minolta’s effort to develop a product with excellent physical characteristics such as functionality and durability, combined with user friendliness such as ease of use and sense of security, is worthy of this award.
CM-M6, a multi-angle spectrophotometer
A multi-angle spectrophotometer ideal for color control of automobile exterior parts
Feature of the design
The product is designed for easy handling as well as stable measurement of the colors of curved surfaces and enhanced user-friendliness.
Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
The product is precisely tailored to user needs for measuring the colors of automobile exterior parts. To ensure stable measurement of curved surfaces, Konica Minolta adopted a design that enables users to measure the object in any direction, and this approach is well reflected in the shape of the product. The ease of holding, the shape designed to avoid damaging the object to be measured, and Konica Minolta’s original fonts all indicate the company’s commitment to enhancing overall quality.
Infinium Σ, an optical planetarium
An optical planetarium designed to precisely reproduce the beautiful starry sky.
Feature of the design
The product is characterized by a star ball (star projector) with an innovative exterior design, combining design principles with artistic beauty.
Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
The product uses 32 separate star plates for projection—it adopts mathematically-stable 32 star plates, consisting of 20 hexagonal plates and 12 pentagonal plates. The result is greater orderliness and stability of the structure which is compatible with design principles. Components with a rigid texture are combined with high accuracy through thick joints, which gives an impressive appearance to the machine which is designed to visualize the elements and orderly structure of the universe, celestial bodies, and stars.
Konica Minolta Planetarium "MANTEN"
A planetarium where visitors can enjoy a relaxing time under the starry sky.
Feature of the design
The planetarium is designed to enable harried visitors tired by busy urban life to return to their original selves in a dark and soundless environment.
Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
A planetarium can be a venue that enables modern people, living a hectic life amid a flood of information and technology, to regain the original rhythm of life. MANTEN reminds us of the possibility of a planetarium as an oasis for modern people.
Features of the award-winning products
Care Support Solution
This solution aims to enhance the efficiency of caregiving work in its entirety through workflow innovation centering on sensors and smartphones to a greater extent than conventional nurse call, mat sensor and nursing care reporting systems.
For more information:
https://www.konicaminolta.com/about/research/future/care_support/index.html
AeroDR 3, a cassette-type digital X-ray system
This wireless portable DR system is a flagship model of Konica Minolta’s digital X-ray system AeroDR series. Capable of delivering images with world-leading resolution, this system can be used in a wider range of environments, including a patient’s bedside, ICUs, emergency departments and operating rooms as well as radiography rooms.
For more information:
https://www.konicaminolta.com/about/releases/2016/1220_01_01.html
CM-M6, a multi-angle spectrophotometer
This multi-angle spectrophotometer can evaluate the colors of automobile exterior parts with curved surfaces, such as the main body and bumper, with constant stability. With its ability to better detect color differences and its small size and light weight, this model meets customer needs and delivers greater usability at production sites.
For more information:
http://sensing.konicaminolta.asia/products/spectrophotometer-cm-m6/
Infinium Σ, an optical planetarium
This is the latest model of Konica Minolta’s optical planetarium Infinium series, reputed for its ease of operation and the ability to project the most realistic starry sky. Built with cutting-edge optical, nano-fabrication and machine control technologies, this model can project a full-dome image of a silent, pitch-black night sky filled with twinkling stars.
For more information:
https://www.konicaminolta.com/planetarium/hard/planetariums/infinium_sigma/index.html
Konica Minolta Planetarium "MANTEN"
MANTEN was opened on March 20, 2004 under the direct management of Konica Minolta, which has a track record also as a planetarium manufacturer. It is now visited by some 400,000 people per year. After the renovation in 2015, for which the Good Design Award was given, MANTEN was reopened as a new type of planetarium which provides visitors with a comfortable space where they can relax and feel refreshed and free, thus opening up new possibilities of planetariums.
For more information:
https://www.konicaminolta.com/planetarium/theaters/manten/index.html
About Good Design Award
The Good Design Award is a comprehensive design commendation program implemented by the JDP with a view to highlighting and commending outstanding designs around us in the pursuit of prosperous lives and industrial and social development.
This program has a history spanning approximately 60 years since its implementation in 1957 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (present-day Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) under the name, Good Design Selection System, which was more widely known as the G Mark System.