The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that certain aspects of our daily lives may never be the same.
One thing is certain: the recent health crisis is driving development of new technologies to mitigate the pandemic and anticipate the needs of a changed business landscape.
In an unprecedented action taken by the private sector, 70 of the largest brands in Asia have joined the Intellectual Property Open Access Declaration Against COVID-19 (gckyoto.com/covid-2). At a recent Brookings Institution webinar on reopening Asia amid the pandemic, Keijiro Hora, president and CEO of Cypress-based Mitsubishi Electric US Inc., emphasized the company’s commitment to this cooperative effort to make intellectual property available free of charge for use in “stopping the spread” of COVID-19.
Mitsubishi Electric’s U.S. research and development arm, Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, joined the U.S. version of the declaration, the Open COVID Pledge (opencovidpledge.org).
This is significant because Mitsubishi Electric ranks second globally in international patent applications filed in 2019 and owns more than 70,000 patents.
COVID-19 is creating a critical paradigm shift: companies across the world have an opportunity to share technology to help slow the spread of COVID-19 or anything like it in the future. What does this collaborative innovation look like in Orange County?
Mitsubishi Electric research labs developed technology to remotely monitor human vital signs, such as estimating heart rate via cameras. This innovation initially focused on monitoring driver health to promote safer roads, but it may be used elsewhere, perhaps for contactless monitoring of people entering a building or performing remote patient care.
Orange County is home to some of the leading health-tech companies in the U.S. and offers one of the country’s strongest healthcare infrastructures through its various healthcare systems. This example represents one opportunity among a seemingly infinite number of them for Orange County companies to collaborate on minimizing the effects of COVID-19 and future pandemics.
This movement is a response to the lives lost and threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, shadowed by the reality that it could happen again. It requires collaboration, applying joint technology to not only help track and contain current diseases, but also to develop solutions promoting safe and healthy environments today and for future generations.
Mitsubishi Electric’s U.S. headquarters oversees businesses that manufacture and service elevators and building HVAC systems, both areas where current technology can be employed to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to health concerns, many of us are adjusting to social distancing and anxiety about returning to offices, shops and restaurants.
Like apprehension about touching surfaces, many of us face additional challenges in multi-story buildings. Signage and health authorities call for physical distancing before entering an elevator, with limited passenger capacity per car. Potential risks continue along the way, as we press buttons to call the elevator and select a destination floor.
Technology may help reduce risks. For example, HVAC systems are an important factor in filtering air and maintaining sufficient airflow throughout each zone in an office or retail space, which can help to reduce airborne contaminants that trigger asthma and allergy symptoms, spread illness and impact air quality. HVAC systems that provide continuous filtration within each zone, such as variable refrigerant flow systems, are part of the critical infrastructure needed to maintain a healthy building environment.
COVID-19 is fueling innovation in both elevators and building HVAC systems, with a continued trend toward touch-free technology, including biometrics, voice interfaces and solutions to enable users to interact with these systems from their smartphone. Imagine clicking on a mobile-app interface as you approach a building to call an elevator to your floor and activate the HVAC system in your office as a single automated process. This smart technology already exists as part of a Mitsubishi Electric software platform. The next step is connecting this technology to other systems in a building (e.g., security, lighting, service robots).
That’s where collaboration through a forum like the Open COVID Pledge becomes so important.
As part of the pledge, a declarer agrees, “without seeking compensation, not to assert any patent, utility model, design or copyright during the time of this crisis, against any activities whose purpose is stopping the spread of COVID-19, including diagnosis, prevention, containment and treatment.”
Consider this a rallying call for local companies to join the Open COVID Pledge to help ensure that our community does its part to stem the tide of future health crises by developing technology that helps diagnose, prevent, contain or treat future diseases.
(Editor’s Note: Mike Corbo is chief operating officer of Mitsubishi Electric US Inc. Corbo, the highest non-Japanese executive running Mitsubishi Electric US operations, oversees 1,600 employees from the company’s Cypress HQ. His unit generates about $1.3 billion in annual sales.)
