The 63rd annual event of the iENA, the international fair for ideas, inventions and new products, was held at the Nuremberg Exhibition Centre, Germany from October 27-30, 2011. A wide spectrum of inventions was presented at the inventor trade show that cooperated with the Promotional Products Service Institute for the first time. Among nearly 800 inventions and new products from 30 countries, Taiwan, Russia, Korea and Iran have the largest foreign collections of awards, in which the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) has made a significant contribution with its six entries. 

The NARL has collected one special prize, two gold medals and three silver medals from this year’s event. The “non-contact power trip detection device” designed for fixing local short-circuit on delicate circuit board by the NARL’s Instrument Technology Research Center (ITRC) was honored with a special prize for its outstanding invention. 

The two gold medals were awarded to the “eccentric inspection device of optical lens” and the “remote cameras synchronization controlling system” developed by the NARL-ITRC and the NARL’s National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC), respectively. The former is a small inspection device with high-precision optical lens designed for mobile application. Besides, it features enhanced speed that excels traditional approach of mechanical measurement. The latter can remotely capture and produce panoramic three-dimensional views to provide information on the dynamics of disaster management and resilience. 

The three silver medals went to the “image sync measuring apparatus” and the “telescopic observation method for virtual and augmented reality and apparatus thereof” developed by the NARL-ITRC, and the “liquid level detection method” by the NARL-NCHC.