OSU Research Leads to New Technology for the Blind

Evolving from research begun at Oregon State University, ViewPlus Technology’s innovation in new technologies assisting people who are blind or have other visual impairments has reaped both accolades and a strong sales record.

Sales of ViewPlus products are going well and the demand for them is international, said John Gardner, a professor of physics at OSU who helped to form the startup technology firm when other private companies were slow to see the market potential of new technologies for the blind.

The company’s cornerstone product, the Tiger Embosser, produces tactile graphics directly from most Microsoft Windows computer applications in addition to Braille characters. The basic research for the embosser was done at OSU as part of the Science Access Project directed by Gardner, which the university then patented and licensed to ViewPlus Technologies.

“We began the first commercial sales of our graphical embosser in 2000, and an improved version of that product, with more speed and added features, was just put on the market this year,” Gardner said. “We're doing a strong business in the U.S. but also have sales in Italy, Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Thailand, Brazil, India and a number of other countries.”

The Tiger and other technologies are among the products developed by Gardner's research programs since he lost his eyesight in 1988 as a result of complications from glaucoma. An internationally recognized physicist, Gardner has worked to bring the complex tools of math and science—symbols, equations, flow charts, and graphic diagrams—to people who would otherwise be precluded from doing advanced math and science due to their visual disabilities.

ViewPlus was recognized in 2003 as the Outstanding Incubator Client of the Business Enterprise Center in the technology category by the National Business Incubation Association. It was one of only two national awards of its type made by this nonprofit organization that aids in business incubation and entrepreneurship.

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