We strive to discover latent human needs by observing our environment, recording people's experiences and monitoring the latest market and social trends. These needs are then evaluated in terms of importance to human life, market size and technology maturity, among other proprietary variables. The promising ideas are being investigated further to refine the market need, potential and solution feasibility.
We’re always open for business and always keen to know the challenges that you face and what keeps you awake at night. Our Ideation approach enables us to research, discover and develop great solutions for any problem, big or small.
When a need or problem is identified, scientists and engineers tend to jump straight to creating "innovative" solutions.
We instead, take a step back, thoroughly research the field for past and current solutions to understand what has worked and not worked and why. Armed with this knowledge, we identify the critical weaknesses of known technologies/solutions and we focus our innovative thinking on addressing these weaknesses by either improving existing technologies or creating new ones.
R&D CORE is an Innovation Engine company. Our engine is fuelled by observing our environment, monitoring the bleeding edge of technologies, by immersing ourselves into the problem, by running highly focused brainstorming sessions and by constantly prototyping and experimenting with the most promising ideas.
Many ideas require some basic prototyping to test the concept, discover limitations and identify improvements. These prototypes can be sketches, paper mockups, foam models, 3D rapid prototyped objects, functional alpha models, mathematical models, etc. The list of options is unlimited but we tend to select the ones that will serve their purpose in the least amount of time and effort.
Once all problems have been resolved the individual solutions will be merged together towards creating a finished product. Manufacturing methods and stakeholders are identified and a beta prototype is created to demonstrate the full functionality, quality, aesthetics and cost. Sometimes, when the cost of prototyping is excessive, a 3D virtual model will be generated instead. In the meantime the resulting innovations are being protected through a series of utility patent applications, design patent applications, copyrights and most importantly with unbreakable trade secrets whenever possible!
Market Research
Throughout the whole product development process we seek and get the feedback from potential users through panel surveys, paper questionnaires, interviews, online surveys, etc. We use different tools such as Conjoint Analysis, statistical analysis, voice of the customer, price sensitivity meter (Van Westendorp) etc., to identify the value of the product's attributes to the end users and optimize the launch price.
R&D CORE has internally funded projects that fuel the company’s Innovation Engine. Multiple project ideas based on problems, needs and opportunities are collected from multiple sources on a continuous basis; a proprietary evaluation method is used to rank order these ideas based on their overall potential. The most promising ideas proceed to a second stage, more thorough investigation. Upon completion of the second stage, the winning ideas are converted to projects and added into the company’s project pipeline. One of the key decision factors for approving a project is its potential to enhance human life using innovation and technology.
UPLOND is the luxury products division of R&D CORE Limited with a focus on blending high technology and innovation with beautiful design, luxurious natural materials and old world craftsmanship to create the most exclusive, sought-after products in the world.
SOLEPAD SYSTEM - Revolutionising In-Store Shoe Retailing and Delivering Global Vital Footwear Analytics
SURREY, UK – November 2, 2015 - UK technology company R&D CORE is launching the SOLEPAD® SYSTEM, a market first, hi-tech, portable foot measuring and business analytics device, which enables footwear stores to deliver a dynamic one-to-one retailing experience and capture powerful, cloud based, business analytics information.
R&D CORE’s SOLEPAD® SYSTEM provides footwear retailers with a simple, fast way to capture customers’ foot length and width in a second together with date, time and scale used and other variables including the customer’s gender and contact information, boosting interaction with shoe fitters and sales assistants and making the shoe shopping experience enjoyable and engaging for adults and children. The system also captures vital, powerful, business analytics information, 24/7, enabling shoe shops to better understand the entire sales cycle across multiple stores, including why a customer didn’t buy and how each salesperson performs on the front line.
The simple and smart app approach is designed to work on a multitude of smart devices, including smartwatches and enables store assistants and shoe fitters to store the details of the transaction to their smart device. Its super simplistic approach ensures that store personnel can be up and running within minutes, eliminating the need for timely, onsite training sessions and removing any downtime traditionally associated with a new technical retail device.
The SOLEPAD® technology can capture insightful, powerful data across multiple stores to help footwear retailers build a stronger business. When combined with SOLEPAD® cloud, all data is sent to the cloud to visualise the company’s performance and produce effective business analytics reports.
Thomas Papakostas, CEO at R&D CORE explains:
“The SOLEPAD® SYSTEM gives footwear retailers an opportunity to revolutionise the way they sell shoes in-store and more importantly to attract today’s tech-savvy shoe shoppers who are looking for exciting and interactive ways to shop.
Our technology gives retailers the chance to monitor the entire sales cycle even when there is no sale. Understanding why a customer is leaving empty handed empowers the retailer to address the issue. Its seamless cloud interface can give marketing teams and sales departments real time business monitoring and analytics information, 24/7, from any location. Never before has shoe retailing been so hi-tech and powerful.”
Designed and manufactured in the UK, the SOLEPAD® SYSTEM is available globally from November 2015 and comes in three different models SOLEPAD® Starter, SOLEPAD® PRO and SOLEPAD® ENTERPRISE.
For further information please contact R&D CORE at solepad@rndcore.com or telephone: Europe: +44 (0)20 81444600 USA: +1 (617) 997 0950
About R&D CORE Limited
R&D CORE is a financially independent, UK based, technology led start-up organisation specialising in the research, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that enhance human life. Fields of business specialty include: Ideation, advanced market research methods, solution space exploration, intellectual property development, rapid prototyping and development, technology commercialization.
Established in June 2011 and headquartered in Leatherhead, Surrey, R&D CORE focuses on undertaking confidential, ground breaking projects, internally or externally funded. Internally funded projects that fuel the company’s innovation engine include the DRAS® Sensor Technology enabling the creation of large, flexible, multi-contact touchscreens. Additional products include the DRAS® Phone, a truly foldable smartphone, SOLEPAD® SYSTEM a revolutionary foot measuring and business analytics device for shoe retailers and ATLAS an innovative anti-theft bike stand. Further information on R&D CORE is available at: www.rndcore.com
Over 80% of children wear the wrong size shoes, which can result in significant health issues including back pain, ankle pain, an increased hallux angle, altered gait and degraded sports performance. Given children’s feet grow every day, there is a need for a fast and accurate foot measurement solution that can be used by schools to regularly assess their students’ feet size and warn the parents whenever there is an issue.
The SOLEPAD® Station is a super fast, easy and fun to use foot measurement solution that has been developed to serve the above need. The child's foot length and width are measured within 1 sec with an accuracy of 1mm.
KEY BENEFITS
• Improve the pupils’ well-being and sports performance • Address a serious health issue by raising its importance to the parents' attention • Actual demonstration of the school’s commitment to offer the best service to their pupils • Stand out from other schools • High-tech, interactive and entertaining pupil experience • No training is needed
R&D CORE has developed a revolutionary, patent-pending sensing technology (DRAS®) that allows the creation of large, flexible, multi-contact, force sensing touchscreens. The technology is based on a Digital Resistive Area Sensing principle. This technology can be integrated with flexible electronic displays to enable the next generation of fully interactive flexible display devices such as mobile phones, e-book readers, smart watches, smart clothes or large scale flexible TVs. The sensing technology can be used to detect common interactive gestures such as tapping, pinching, and swiping, to detect handwriting, to measure finger force.
Background
Flexible electronic displays have great potential in the future of portable electronic devices such as e-book readers, mobile phones, electronic newspapers / magazines, gaming consoles, point of sale labeling and smart watches. Although there are still a few technological obstacles that hinder the commercialization of truly flexible display products, the first products with a curved, but not flexible, display have made their appearance in the market. These products are expected to be the precursor of the truly flexible display versions, most likely to first appear in smart watches and mobile phones.
Despite the many encouraging developments in the field of flexible displays and the media attention the subject is attracting, there has not been a corresponding progress in the field of flexible touchscreen sensors that can be integrated with such displays. Most portable rigid display devices offer touchscreen functionality, which the public has grown to take for granted in all smart devices. Therefore, touchscreen sensing is a critical requirement in the success of most flexible display products. Which technology can best fit the needs of the upcoming next generation smart products?
The two main touchscreen technologies that have dominated the rigid display market are based on the analogue resistive (4 or 5 wire) and the projected capacitive principles. The latter has practically dominated the market primarily because of its visual clarity (thanks to using glass substrates as opposed to flexible plastic sheets), their responsiveness (they detect proximity/touch as opposed to force) and their ability to detect multiple, concurrent finger touches. On the other hand, resistive touchscreens have benefits in many other fronts, such as accuracy, low-cost, simplicity of electronics, etc. but in overall the trade-offs for smart devices have been against them.
Nonetheless, the introduction of flexible display products introduces some interesting touchscreen sensor requirements that necessitate the re-evaluation of the most promising technology. A truly flexible display will require a truly flexible touchscreen sensor. Inevitably, this translates to using flexible plastic substrates as the carrier for the touchscreen’s electrodes. With this in mind, the projected capacitive touchscreens will no longer be able to use glass, therefore, their visual clarity will match that of resistive touchscreens. On the other hand, conventional resistive solutions still suffer from a key limitation, the inability to sense more than one contact.
Further, there are many other new requirements that any touchscreen technology will need to meet to succeed in the portable flexible display market, e.g. immunity to water/rain or wide temperature conditions, ability to recognize handwriting (for drawing sketches / annotating or inputting script based languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean), extremely low power consumption, ruggedness, immunity to accidental touches, simplicity of the hardware interface and low integration cost.
Summary of DRAS® Technology Benefits
R&D CORE has developed the Digital Resistive Area Sensing (DRAS®) technology that addresses all of the new touchscreen needs. Table 1 compares the performance of conventional analogue and projected capacitive sensors against DRAS sensors on all key touchscreen features that are relevant to smart flexible display devices.
It is evident that the DRAS technology emerges as the winning solution. It can detect more than one contact, it can sense finger force, it offers superior spatial resolution, it does not require recalibration, it is not affected by humidity or temperature swings, it only picks up intentional contacts and it consumes very little power while the integration with a display is straight-forward. Furthermore, it works with gloves, which is an important requirement for outdoor use in cold environments. Of course, the technology is inherently shatterproof and border less, i.e. it does not require a bezel.
In contrast, capacitive sensors cannot detect force, they are too sensitive to accidental touches, they have worse spatial accuracy, they cannot be used with gloves, they become inoperable if their surface is wet, they require complicated electronics that draw a lot of power and the cost of making them border less is rather high.
Another important feature of the DRAS technology that is applicable to larger scale flexible displays is its scalability. Specifically, the sensor can be made as large as the application requires without increasing the complexity of the hardware interface and without compromising the sensor performance.
The technology consists of the sensor, the interface electronics and the software needed to identify contact area, contact position and contact force.
R&D CORE’s technology enables the introduction of flexible display electronic devices into the market without forcing end users to accept a performance / functionality / usability compromise in regards to touch interactivity.
After considering the new requirements the flexible display applications introduce, it becomes apparent that capacitive touch sensing is no longer the best technology. Conventional resistive touchscreens are not ideal either.
We strive to discover latent human needs by observing our environment, recording people's experiences and monitoring the latest market and social trends. These needs are then evaluated in terms of importance to human life, market size and technology maturity, among other proprietary variables. The promising ideas are being investigated further to refine the market need, potential and solution feasibility.
