Innovative Technology Award for Pulse Data International

Pulse Data International's use of innovative technology in the development of its BrailleNote product has been recognised in the latest round of Innovative Technology Commendation Awards.

The awards, sponsored by the New Zealand Foundation of Research, Science and Technology, are designed to acknowledge outstanding achievement by companies in the adoption of leading edge technology.

Launched only last year, the BrailleNote is the world's first portable note taker to use the Microsoft Windows CE operating system. It features a special suite of software, a Braille keyboard, and the ability to review data via speech output, or through an electronic Braille cell display. Users of the BrailleNote are able to send and receive emails, link up with standard software applications such as Microsoft Word, and exchange information with their sighted or unsighted peers.

Thirteen companies were considered for the Innovative Technology Commendation Awards, with Pulse Data International, chosen as one of three successful nominees. Judges Nigel Banks of Zespri Innovation, Neville Gibson of the National Business Review, Jim Watson of Genesis Research and Development, and Peter Burke of the Foundation for Research Science and Technology, said the three winners had developed innovative technologies that were the key drivers in the development of exciting new products. The winners, they said had also demonstrated an ability to secure quite diverse and highly successful market niches for their products.

"Demand for the product internationally is huge,' says Managing Director Dr. Russell Smith. 'We've been blown away by the response we've received. It feels great to get such overwhelmingly positive feedback."

"The BrailleNote enables blind people to work in exactly the same environment as sighted people in terms of computer documents and literature. BrailleNote systems are completely compatible and automatically translated both ways into Braille and ordinary language so blind people can now compete in the employment market in a new way."

Established in 1988, Pulse Data International has gained international recognition for the design and manufacture of electronic devices for the partially sighted and blind. Pulse Data International exports products to more than 30 countries, and has established sales offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.