Cassette tape pioneer and inventors of the GPS to be honored

(Alexey Arkhipov)

Companies and individuals will on October 19 be inducted into the CE Hall of Fame sponsored by American organization Consumer Electronics Association (CEA): those being honored include a pioneer of the cassette tape and the inventor of the GPS.

The CEA is the preeminent consumer electronics trade association in the US with over 2,000 member companies.

The CE Hall of Fame acknowledges those who are deemed to have led the way in products and services which change the way people live their lives. This year Mr. Frederik (Frits) Philips, one of the men responsible for the invention of the cassette tape, will be inducted into the CE Hall of Fame.

Mr. Philips was president of Philips Electronics when the company invented the "compact audio cassette" (or simply called the cassette tape) in 1962. During World War II, Philips was also responsible for saving the lives of 382 Jewish individuals in the Netherlands by telling the Nazis that they were indispensible workers in the Philips factory.

Dr. Ivan Getting and Dr. Bradford Parkinson are also among this year's inductees. Getting and Parkinson are credited with envisioning and developing the Global Positioning System or GPS.

After the awards evening in San Francisco, videos of the evening's speeches will be available to watch online at http://www.cesweb.org.

The CEA is also sponsoring consumer electronics event CES International, which will be held January 6-9, 2011. At the event a wide selection of products in categories such as Household Appliances and Eco-design will be judged, with the most innovative designs being announced during CES International.

For more information about CES International see: http://www.cesweb.org