SAMSUNG's Braille Mobile Phone Gets Awarded

Samsung Electronics announced that its Braille mobile phone for the visually impaired (model name: Touch Messenger) won the Gold Award at the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), one of the world's most authoritative design competitions, sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and BusinessWeek.

The "Touch Messenger" is a product designed by Samsung Design China based in Shanghai, China, a country with about 9 million visually impaired people. The product is assessed as a successful result of Samsung's global design strategy, which is: products suited for local needs and characteristics should be designed and planned by obtaining inspiration from local markets in countries around the world.

The innovative Touch Messenger enables the visually impaired users to send and receive Braille text messages. The 3x4 button on the cell phone is used as two Braille keypads and text messages can be checked through the Braille display screen in the lower part. Once this product is commercialized, it is expected to dramatically boost the quality of life for visually impaired people, numbering as many as 180 million worldwide.