Cobalt and Cylite receive Victoria’s Highest Design Honour
The Premier’s Design Awards, established in 1996 by the Victorian Government as the Victorian Design Awards is where designers and businesses are recognised for their design excellence. It provides an opportunity for the community to better understand and appreciate the role of design in the development of better products, services, spaces, and experiences.
OCT (optical coherence tomography) is a non-invasive medical imaging technique used every day by Ophthalmologists and Optometrists to diagnose and manage patients with ocular conditions. Current OCT devices use a single laser to scan the eye and capture an OCT image. When scanning a patient’s eye, constant movement makes it very challenging to capture a motion-free image and attain accurate eye measurements due to this natural eye movement.
Cylite’s Hyperparallel OCT, (HP-OCT™) solves this core limitation of conventional OCTs by splitting the laser into over a thousand beamlets; each taking a simultaneous measurement, creating highly accurate true volume OCT images – a world first in OCT technology.
Cobalt’s role in the HP-OCT’s journey was to interpret Cylite’s technology into a beautifully cohesive and functionally precise design.
This combination of breakthrough technology and refined user-centred design stamps Australia’s position on the map for optometric and ophthalmic devices, traditionally steered by countries such as Germany, Japan, and the USA. Moreover, it cements Victoria’s reputation as a world centre for medical device design and engineering excellence. With the launch of the HP-OCT coming later in 2021, CTO of Cylite, Grant Frisken, says hopefully,
“there is a real opportunity to grow a new high-technology industry here in Australia, an industry that adds value and has the potential to change the world.”
At Cobalt, the Premier’s Design Awards of 2020 signified a further testament to the high quality of work from our designers and engineers, with one of our Associate Principals Libby Christmas also having been selected as a jury member for the Tertiary Student Design category of the awards.
These accomplishments come as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary, an optimistic marker for what is to come at Cobalt, as we continue to foster and refine our work. In accepting the Award presented at the NGV Great Hall, Jack Magree, Cobalt Co-Founder said, “this award is another acknowledgement of the exceptional level of work the team at Cobalt have been producing over these past 25 years, with many more to come.”
