By ELLEN READ manufacturing writer
A Christchurch firm that designs and manufactures high-tech products for the visually impaired has bought a controlling stake in a Californian distribution company - a move it hopes will greatly increases sales in the United States.
Pulse Data International last week acquired 51 per cent of AccessAbility, a San Francisco-based distributor of products for the visually impaired, for an undisclosed sum.
"This is the first acquisition of this sort that we've made and it gives us an opportunity to greatly expand our US sales, most notably in California," said Pulse Data International's managing director, Russell Smith.
AccessAbility will distribute a full line of Pulse Data International's products in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
Dr Smith said one-third of Pulse Data International's sales were to the US, making it the company's most important market.
The company is eyeing other US distribution companies and considering ways to finance further acquisitions.
"Hopefully that will take place later in the year," Dr Smith said.
Pulse Data International's successes so far include the development and manufacture of the SmartView range of video magnifiers and the BrailleNote line of notetakers.
A SmartView video magnifier is an electronic tool that enables people with partial vision to read and write. It magnifies everyday objects and presents the image on a computer screen or television monitor. The used can select the size and colour of the text and the level of contrast.
Launched late last year, BrailleNote, a world first, is a portable notetaker for the blind.
It has a tailored suite of software, a braille-based keyboard and a speech interface, and enables the blind to read and use text documents.
Based on Microsoft Windows CE operating system, BrailleNote allows the direct interchange of documents in Microsoft Word format with other computers.
Established in 1988, Pulse Data International exports products to more than 30 countries and has sales offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia.
Other plans for the year ahead include working with Microsoft to develop a way for blind people to use electronic books.
"Microsoft's goal is to make electronic books a huge medium for literature, but the whole process of achieving the high level of security needed to distribute books like that so people can't steal them and publish them themselves has made it particularly difficult for blind people to have any sort of access," Dr Smith said.
Pulse Data International has signed an agreement with Microsoft to jointly develop a way of giving access to their electronic books with BrailleNote.
This would mean a blind person could download a book that had just been published and read it in braille, he said.
Vision products get big chance in US
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