Top honours for mobile device for the visually impaired
Rochester, USA: PEMSTAR Inc., a leading provider of global engineering, product design, manufacturing and fulfilment services to technology, industrial and medical companies has announced that it has been honoured with three prestigious awards for its design of the first fully-integrated cellular phone and personal organizer created exclusively for the visually impaired.
The ALVA MPO 5500, co-designed, developed and manufactured by PEMSTAR, received the Belgian SWIFT Prize as well as the GSM Association Award 2004 in Cannes, France. At CeBIT 2004 in Hanover, Germany, the product received the renowned iF Design Award.

The ALVA MPO 5500 combines a GSM cell phone, personal organizer, SMS, notetaker and braille display. Using small dynamic dots within a total of 20 cells, the device depicts braille in place of a standard display. The user has access to all the functions of the device using this line of refreshable braille characters, or the device can be voice-driven via menu-navigated instructions. Available features include telephone, text messages, appointment calendar, email, notes and address book.

The idea for the MPO came from ALVA B.V., a leading provider of information technology for the blind and visually impaired, based in the Netherlands. The award-winning industrial and interactive design was the work of the Industrial Interaction Design Group -"TEAM ID2", a team within PEMSTAR. This group focuses on creating user-centred solutions that are optimised for maximum acceptability by the target end-user. A highly integrated approach ensures that the product idea is developed into a realistic solution.
PEMSTAR received the prestigious iF Design Award in 1998, 1999 and 2000 for the design of handheld oscilloscopes. The experience has led the company to incorporate the stringent iF Award criteria into PEMSTAR industrial design and development centres around the globe.
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