KEY POINTS:
Whatever way you look at it, the past two years have been a period of seismic change for Christchurch hi-tech darling HumanWare.
It was two years ago that the company's founder, Dr Russell Smith, a pioneer in technology to assist the blind, and his wife, Marian, boarded their Cessna 182 to fly home after a technology conference held by venture capitalist Jenny Morel.
Their plane crashed off the north Canterbury coast, killing the couple and leaving a company without the person who had steered its technology development since 1973.
Based a short drive out of central Christchurch, HumanWare is known worldwide for the BrailleNote, a mini-computer that allows blind people to access most of the tools a laptop user with 20-20 vision enjoys - word processing, email and web-surfing included.
The BrailleNote has been largely responsible for HumanWare claiming a 60 per cent share of the global market for assistive devices for the blind.
Blind children all around the world - the lucky ones, anyway - pick up a BrailleNote when they're between 10 and 12 years old. Many will stick with it for the rest of their lives, giving HumanWare a hugely loyal customer base and recurring revenue for years to come.
But HumanWare is also playing in the much bigger and more competitive market for devices aimed at those with learning disabilities and the visually impaired - everything from digital magnifiers to talking-book players.
In HumanWare's small manufacturing plant in Christchurch, technicians assemble devices bound for Europe, Asia and the United States, on a just-in-time production line that's been radically overhauled since chief executive Richard Mander took the reins last March.
As the second anniversary of the plane crash passes, there's a sense that the company is finally able to move on.
A montage of photos in HumanWare's reception area shows Smith throughout the history of the company, originally called PulseData.
One black-and-white shot shows him demonstrating his Binaural Sensory Aid, a sonar system built into a pair of glasses to help the blind navigate using sound.
"We put that display up in reception the day of the shareholder meeting. Russell died two years ago. It had a huge impact. Some of the staff had worked with him for 20 years," says Mander.
That shareholder meeting in May was held to seek approval for a major restructure of HumanWare's ownership. The result is that dozens of shareholders have been bought out by Australian investment firm Jolimont Capital and HumanWare's senior managers.
"A lot of the shareholders had been with us for a long time and put their money in a long time ago," says Mander.
"They wanted dividend payments; we wanted to reinvest in the company."
The investment is necessary to fund an ambitious expansion of HumanWare's product line-up.
The Business had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to set eyes on the more significant upcoming additions, but it's safe to say that one product in particular is set to capture global attention when it debuts in the run-up to Christmas.
In general terms, HumanWare's game plan for future growth involves adapting existing popular consumer electronics and business devices so the blind and sight-impaired can use them too.
That means a more intensive focus on software development for HumanWare, which had revenue of $58 million in the year to June last year.
A partnership it struck with Research in Motion, the company behind the wildly successful BlackBerry handheld computer, is a breakthrough deal for Mander's team and points the way forward. Early next year, HumanWare software which talks blind people through the BlackBerry's menus will be available for the phone-cum-email device.
"In the longer term it's about getting revenue out of software," says Mander, whose vision for HumanWare is that it becomes the company automatically associated with adapting popular products so they can be used by the blind or visually impaired.
"If we can have HumanWare inside the box, we'd be happy," he adds.
Mander spent seven years working at computer-maker Apple - he met his wife, Amanda, there when the two started at the company as interns on the same day.
The pair learned a great deal about so-called user-orientated design at Apple, much of which has rubbed off on HumanWare. Amanda Mander, working through her company Zanzara, was a design consultant to HumanWare before her husband came on board. In a bid to improve the look and feel of HumanWare products, the Manders drove a move to bring the industrial design of products in-house. "Up to six months ago, that was done externally," says Richard Mander.
HumanWare has also moved to bolster its R&D capability by underwriting an assistive technology research group in the University of Canterbury's fledgling UCi3 innovation centre.
A bare patch of land on the university campus indicates where UCi3 will take shape when construction begins next month. Funded by the Government to the tune of $9.7 million, UCi3 matched the public funding dollar for dollar through contributions from IBM, Hewlett Packard, HumanWare, Jade Software and Tait Electronics.
The idea is that postgraduate students and staff will collaborate on research projects with the tech sector, creating spin-off companies and intellectual property that generates income for its owners.
The resume of the man recently hired to lead the centre indicates exactly the direction the university is taking with UCi3. Dr Darin Graham hails from Canada where, as the president and chief executive of Communications and Information Ontario, he forged joint ventures between academic researchers and industry heavyweights like Research In Motion and Nortel.
"The Kiwi approach to innovation is very entrepreneurial," says Graham.
"For me, I think this could have huge impact not only for the university but the industry itself."
The centre has seven research themes, one of which is geospatial technology, led by another import, British scientist Dr David Parker.
Parker's students may spend a good deal of their time tinkering with miniature planes assisted by the Model Aircraft Association, but the research has a serious - and commercial - focus.
The geospatial team works on image sensor and global-positioning technology, some of which can be mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles.
Parker rattles off the potential applications of the group's technology: testing water uptake in crops, finding lost people, atmospheric testing, setting up airborne communications networks in time of disasters.
Started with a $2 million investment from the Government and $900,000 from the Canterbury region, the geospatial group landed 11 commercial contracts worth more than $500,000 in its first nine months of operation, said Parker.
"We're attracting PhDs from around the world."
Mander, for his part, hopes to attract some top engineering talent to the area of assistive technologies and HumanWare is working with the Christchurch City Council to set up the city as a test-bed for new assistive technologies. "There's no reason why New Zealand couldn't become a global centre for this type of thing."
Helping hand
* The BrailleNote is a mini-computer that allows blind people to access tools such as word processing, email and web-surfing.
* It has been largely responsible for HumanWare claiming a 60 per cent share of the global market for assistive devices for the blind.
* Blind children pick up a BrailleNote at 10-12 years of age, giving HumanWare a recurring revenue for years to come.
* HumanWare is also working on other devices such as digital magnifiers and talking book players.
