Rostec's Director of Communications and Strategic Research Vasiliy Brovko told the newspaper that the corporation is developing a range of "smart" items for the army and special forces which also fulfil civilian functions, and present particularly good prospects for wider sales. The corporation aims to raise its production of "smart" products for civilian use by 50 percent.
Candidates include the "Opeka-3" medical bracelet and telecommunication device, which analyses heartrate and other physical characteristics and sends the results to medical experts for analysis, B-SH 2 wide-range binoculars and the GSSH-29 special communications headset, which allows the user to receive radio and telephone messages while drowning out background noise of up to 155 decibels.
"We have high-tech products, but the design doesn't do them justice," Brovko said.
"This company has revenues of around $30 billion per year, but in practice it doesn't have a center that concentrates on design," he explained.
Brovko revealed that the design shortfall can be blamed on a corresponding shortfall in the number of designers who specialize in industrial design; around 70 percent of designers work with graphics, and most of the rest work in the interior, packaging and media industries.
As a result, he said most of the designing for military products is left to engineers; while some young designers like to draw futuristic design concepts, they have not become involved in the practicalities of production.
As part of its efforts to change this state of affairs, earlier this month Rostec teamed up with the Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics to launch an industrial design competition with a prize of 450,000 rubles ($6,830).
The competition closes on June 27, following which an expert jury will whittle down the entrants to the three best in each area, to be presented at the annual Innoprom International Industrial Trade Fair held in Ekaterinburg in July. Participants at the fair will vote for the winners, who will get the chance to bid for a contract to produce their design for a wider market.
