Canon Information Systems Research Australia (CISRA) has won the Australian Design Award of the Year for the User Interface Card (uiCard), a revolutionary new technology that enables easy Internet access.

The prestigious award is the top honour for the Australian design industry. CISRA, one of Australia's leading research and development organisations, developed the uiCard as a low-cost, hand-held remote control that can communicate with a TV set-top box or PC which is connected to the Internet or other network, and utilises user-interface cards. Sydney-based KWA Design provided the supporting industrial design of the remote control.

According to Standards Australia, which runs the Australian Design Awards, the uiCard was selected "because it is a revolutionary new product that showcases the very best of innovative Australian industrial design in the global consumer market."

Australian Design Award judge, Mr Robert Geddes, said: "The uiCard has the potential to change global customer and client dealings. It turns the internet into a truly useable and useful everyday tool, creating a new vehicle for organisations to communicate, advertise and deal with their customers. Its design ensures the product is used correctly first time and every time. Engineering and manufacturing details have been resolved with minimal complexity, ensuring cost efficiencies, durability and reliability."

Dr Phil Robertson, a Director of CISRA, added: "We are delighted and honoured to receive the award. uiCard was conceived, designed and developed entirely in Australia. The visibility and recognition that this award brings will help us as we build the uiCard business in Australia, and take it to the global market."

The uiCard system uses a low-cost hand-held remote control to communicate with a TV set-top box which is connected to the Internet or other network. Low-cost smartcards with user-interface icons printed on the surface are inserted behind a transparent touch panel in the remote control. Touching the panel over the icons on the card sends the corresponding command to the set-top box. With one touch a web site can be reached and displayed on the TV set. The uiCard system can also be used with an Internet connected PC.

Applications are unlimited. They include services such as home-shopping, home-banking, trading cards, games, video-on-demand, and information access such as city guides or TV program guides. Cards are convenient links, or portals, to the on-line world with integrated payment facilities.

For home users, uiCard offers simple access to Internet services. For businesses it offers a new way of marketing and providing access to services. For ISPs and TV channel operators it offers a powerful service differentiator.

CISRA intends to position uiCard as the leading global gateway for on-line services from Internet-connected TV and other platforms by exploiting uiCard's unique capabilities to advertise, access and transact on-line services.

CISRA will establish a new venture to take uiCard to the global market and is targeting strategic investment for this venture. Dr Robertson added: "Currently we have pilot deployments planned in Australia and overseas and are in discussion with several major service providers. We are keen to discuss deployment of uiCard with major network operators, ISPs, and content providers."

The uiCard system was wholly conceived and developed in Australia by CISRA, with support from parent company, Canon. Industrial design for the remote control was done by KWA, a leading Australian design company.

CISRA (Canon Information Systems Research Australia) is Canon's Australian research and development centre, based in North Ryde in Sydney, with a mandate to strengthen and diversify Canon's businesses. Since its inception in 1990, CISRA has grown to become one of Australia's leading R&D; organisations, with 160 staff and annual revenues of $30 million.