The Okada Noriaki-designed B&D Messenger is a device that helps blind and deaf people communicate via SMS text messaging. I love the design of this thing, the cardboard housing they used to bring costs down ends up providing a very nice looking surface while keeping it inexpensive. They’ve also made the unit much smaller than other Braille phone devices currently on the market. The system is based on a set of twelve points that raise and lower to create braille letters which are translated from SMS texts received by your computer (USB connection required). It’s great to see someone using technological innovation to make a device that benefits people more accessible. More info and pictures can be found at the B&D site.
Via Gizmodo
That’s awesome.
The two immediate draw backs I see are… if you have a bad temper problem, it’d be pretty easy to smash the phone. And the other one would be if a blind person attends a lot of pool parties and dropped the phone in the pool, it’d be pretty hard to lie to your phone provider that your phone just stopped working after a bunch of party goers shoved you into the pool. But who pushes a blind person into a pool?
I’d also keep this phone out of reach from pyros.
Very cool none the less.