LG Electronics is launching a corporate-level initiative of technological open innovation called Collaborate & Innovate for initiating and developing relationships with global partners "who have great ideas and technologies," the company announced today.

As part of this initiative, LG has set up a team responsible for managing collaboration relationships with partners. This team will be on hand at the LG stand at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, from January 4th - 9th to meet with interested potential parties.

"LG highly values such partnerships and has a strategic view to see that these become long term collaborative relationships," the company said. "LG believes that the best collaborations are those that offer value to both parties and result in the most innovative results. This collaboration could take the form of licensing, funding for development, investment or acquisition," LG added.

LG has a vast product range, divided into five business areas: Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Home Appliances, Air Conditioning and Business Solutions. In addition, LG continues to venture into new industries such as Solar Energy and Healthcare to expand its business portfolio.

LG is looking for technological feedback in areas such as content management (platforms that offer users and developers chance to have their own input - application stores, user generated content, sharing with friends and family, social networking, etc.), elemental technologies that could help the Korean giant to move beyond the current generation of user interfaces (touchless screens, proximity detection, gesture recognition, voice recognition, motion detection, location awareness etc.), Wireless & RF (new ways to send data between consumer electronics devices wirelessly, un-compressed transmissions that can be used for all sorts of data between many devices), as well as next generation dispaly technologies from those surrounding the current trends for 3D, OLED, LED backlight, slim dimensions etc; as well as more longer term visions such as whole wall displays and ways to drive super high resolutions or scalable modular systems.

Besides the CE segment, LG is open to hear technological proposals related to thermal & mechanical (cooling as well as heating products, technologies to reduce the noise and vibration of appliances with moving parts, high efficiency heaters, high efficiency compressors, motors, inverters, and even technologies to remove the heat from high power LEDs), in car telematics, security & surveillance and healthcare.

"Open innovation is not about simply finding technologies and acquiring them in a transactional approach," said Dr. Woo Paik, President and Chief Technology Office at LG Electronics, whose team is responsible for the Collaborate & Innovate initiative. "It is about building mutually beneficial relationships by collaborating and innovating together towards a common goal."

An external portal website -- www.collaborateandinnovate.com -- has been set up to provide more details about LG?s plans for collaboration, as well as the types of technologies in which the company is most interested. Users can register to receive updates and submit partnership proposals directly to LG?s Collaborate & Innovate staff.