With consumers slow to respond to the PlayStation 3 and Sony losing ground at an alarming rate to rivals Microsoft and Nintendo, former Sony Computer Entertainment chairman and CEO Ken Kutaragi left the Japanese electronics giant under questionable circumstances in June 2007. However, since his departure, the "Father of the PlayStation" has received ample accolades from his peers, with both the Entertainment Software Association and the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences honoring the PlayStation inventor since his departure.

　　Ken Kutaragi Today, one more electronics-industry trade group opened its box of laurels for the former Sony exec. The Consumer Electronics Association announced Ken Kutaragi as one of a dozen other inductees to the CE Hall of Fame. The CE Hall of Fame awards will be handed out during the CEA's Industry Forum in Las Vegas on October 21.

　　Unsurprisingly, the CEA called out Kutaragi's contributions to the gaming industry, given that he fostered the PlayStation from its infancy in 1994 through to the PlayStation 3's launch in 2006. Joining Kutaragi in the inventor class of this year's awards are Dr. Fritz Sennheiser, founder of Sennheiser Electronic Corp. and trailblazer in microphone and headphone technology, and Motorola's Martin Cooper and Donald Linder, who developed the first practical mobile phone in 1973.

　　As the organizer of the Consumer Electronics Show, the CEA has been honoring noteworthy inventors, engineers, business leaders, and journalists since 2000, thus far having inducted more than 100 individuals or organizations, including tech-infancy inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, audiophile Dr. Amar Bose, and Apple cofounder Steven Wozniak.