Samsung wins award because of new technology for the visually impaired

Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics announced on Monday that it had won a gold award at the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Business Week.

Samsung won the gold award for its Braille mobile phone, the Touch Messenger, which was designed by the company's Shanghai-based Samsung Design China division.

The Touch Messenger allows visually impaired users to send and receive Braille text messages, with the company revealing that the product was developed in line with its global design strategy of gaining inspiration from local needs, in this case the needs of the nine million visually impaired inhabitants of China.

It is anticipated that once the Touch Messenger is commercialised it will increase the quality of life for the world's 180 million visually impaired.

Users will be able to use two Braille keypads on the phone to send messages, while a Braille display screen on the lower part of the phone will allow them to read incoming messages.