INDEX awards 2007

On August 24, 2007 the winning designs in the five INDEX: categories received the world's biggest design award of 100 000 € each.

A life-saving device called the Tongue Sucker, a low-cost prosthetic foot and a high-speed Tesla Roadster electric sports car were among the winners of the prestigious INDEX awards, a 100,000-euro prize for design ideas. The aptly named Tongue Sucker is an inexpensive first-aid device designed to save lives that lets even untrained bystanders at the scene of an accident quickly re-open airways of unconscious victims before professional help arrives. The idea sprang from the fact that critical minutes are sometimes lost before medics arrive. Four young designers from Imperial College and the Royal College of Art in London devised the Tongue Sucker after the 2005 London suicide bombing attacks. If you dont open the airway before the paramedics arrive there is no point in them arriving anyway, Graeme Davies, one of the inventors, told Reuters after winning the award under patronage of the crown prince of Denmark. The device is a disposable small plastic chamber with a red rubber bulb-like air reservoir squeezed onto the tongue of the victim and then released. The suction draws the tongue off the back of the throat, creating a small but vital gap to allow the person to breathe. It is inexpensive to manufacture.
INDEX prizes, the worlds most lucrative design awards, are picked every two years for five categories: body, home, work, play and community. Each winner gets 100,000 euros