Innovation award winners

CATEGORY: Audio accessories

PRODUCT: TuneStage for iPod

WHAT IT DOES: Connects an iPod player to a stereo system wirelessly via Bluetooth 2.1, turning the music player into a remote control.

HOW IT'S DIFFERENT: "With a range of 33 feet, you can roam almost anywhere within ear's range of your speakers, so your iPod becomes the ideal remote control," said Oliver Duncan-Seil, senior industrial designer at Belkin. "The tiny transmitter plugs into an iPod or iPod mini's remote connector, where it needs no batteries to function. There are no buttons to press, no settings to remember; it pairs by itself with the receiver and begins to transmit. The receiver is designed to suit a home environment, where it can sit horizontally, or where it can be mounted to a wall. The top of the receiver is slightly concave, which serves as a subtle storage area for the transmitter when it is not in use. You can choose a 3.5-mm stereo connector or two RCA plugs to connect to their amplifier."

SUPPLIER: Belkin Corp., Compton, Calif., www.belkin.com

CATEGORY: Vehicle/mobile electronics

PRODUCT: SpeedRay 3000 antenna

WHAT IT DOES: Roof-mounted, enclosed antenna turns any vehicle into a rolling hot spot, providing high-speed Internet access for Wi-Fi-equipped devices and enabling hundreds of digital satellite TV and music channels.

HOW IT'S DIFFERENT: The SpeedRay 3000 is the world's first vehicle-based, low-profile (5.7-inch) satellite antenna to provide in-motion, two-way, high-speed Internet access and live satellite TV. Operating in the contiguous United States, the antenna's azimuth is 360°, with an ability to read between 70° and 20° off of the horizon.

Working between 11.7 and 12.75 GHz, the antenna offers an uplink speed of up to 256 kbits/second; the downlink data rate can reach 800 kbits/s.

The system's Wi-Fi transceiver supports IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g standards and is built into the dish antenna housing. The antenna of the standard 12-volt system weighs 64 pounds.

SUPPLIER: Raysat Inc., Vienna, Va., www.raysat.com

CATEGORY: Home appliances

PRODUCT: iRobot Scooba Floor Washing System

WHAT IT DOES: The latest relative of iRobot's vacuum cleaner robots, Scooba washes and dries hard floor surfaces.

HOW IT'S DIFFERENT: "The iRobot Scooba is the first floor-washing robot available for home use," said Greg White, executive vice president and general manager of Consumer Robots at iRobot Corp. "The robot applies only fresh water and a specially formulated Clorox Scooba cleaning solution to the floor from a clean tank. Its four-step process preps, washes, scrubs and dries floors in a single pass, at the touch of a button.

"As it passes over a spot on the floor, Scooba first preps it by picking up dry, loose debris. Second, nozzles on the underside of Scooba lay down a small amount of water and cleaning solution. Third, Scooba's brush rotates at 1,400 rpm to safely scrub the floor, removing grime and debris."

The product will be available at Sharper Image in January for $399.

SUPPLIER: iRobot Corp., Burlington, Mass., www.irobot.com

CATEGORY: Biometrics

PRODUCT: PalmSecure

WHAT IT DOES: The PalmSecure FAT12FC1L1 sensor uses the latest in biometric security technology to capture the vein pattern image of an individual's hand by radiating it with near-infrared rays.

HOW IT'S DIFFERENT: When a person's hand is illuminated with near-infrared light by PalmSecure, the deoxidized hemoglobin in the palm's veins absorbs the light at a wavelength of about 760 nanometers. The effect is to reduce the reflection rate and cause the veins to appear as a black pattern. The vein pattern is extracted by image processing and registered as a template. Then, the pattern of the person being identified is verified against the registered template.

Fujitsu employs the reflection method to photograph the veins in a hand by illuminating the palm and photographing the light reflected back from the palm. This allows vessels to be seen easily and permits illumination and photography components to be positioned in the same place, enabling the sensor to be embedded in the 70 x 70 x 27-mm PalmSecure device.

SUPPLIER: Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., www.fcpa.fujitsu.com

CATEGORY: Home appliances

PRODUCT: Samsung Quatro

WHAT IT DOES: Refrigerator/freezer with four compartments that can be individually controlled by separate cooling systems, allowing drawers to be converted from fridge to freezer and back again.

HOW IT'S DIFFERENT: The Samsung Quatro "gives modern households unprecedented flexibility," said JT Ahn, business director of home appliances for Samsung. "Consumers can convert refrigerator space to freezer space to prepare for holiday entertaining. Then they can increase their refrigerator capacity to store the leftovers when the party is over."

The Quatro has 25 cubic feet of storage capacity and includes four separate evaporators to adjust temperature and humidity for the four separate sections. "This increases food quality and energy efficiency," said Paul Mumm, Samsung's senior refrigerator marketing manager. "The bottom two drawers of the refrigerator can be converted from refrigerator to freezer in minutes and can be used interchangeably depending on the needs of the family." Those drawers offer temperature settings as high as 50°F, for wine chilling, for example, or as low as -13°F, for quick freezing.

"The Quatro is the first of its kind and will provide consumers the opportunity to better organize and store food for their families," Mumm said. "Each compartment can maintain humidity levels of 72 percent, more than four times the conventional refrigerator, which is critical for keeping fruits and vegetables fresh. This innovation creates a new category in the home appliance and home improvement categories."

The Quatro is priced at $2,999.

SUPPLIER: Samsung Electronics America Inc., Ridgefield Park, N.J., www.samsung.com