Product Category / Personal Use Group

01A10054
Portable color discrimination device / Color Talk
Applicant: HOKKEI INDUSTRIES COMPANY LIMITED
Designer: Shinichi Ohta, Syuuji Hashimoto, O.D.Works Company Incorporated + Tetsurou Takahashi, Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa

This portable color recognition device provides auditory information on colors to blind people. All users have to do is bring the device in contact with the object whose color they want to know, press a button to activate the sensor, and wait for the device to announce the name of the color. Since the device readjusts itself each time it take measurements, it usually announces the correct color. More often than one would expect, blind people find themselves in situations in which they have to coordinate the colors of their own clothing, not for only weddings and funerals, but also for everyday life. We evaluated this project favorably for focusing on a pressing problem for blind people, namely color recognition, and making use of sophisticated technology to propose a product that will enrich the daily lives of the users.




Communication Design Category

01C11243
Triangle Charity Concert Vol.2 Small Fish
Applicant: Triangle
Designer: Triangle + Masaki Fujihata + Kiyoshi Furukawa

This is a project for musical concerts composed in real time using the media art program Small Fish, which creates music according to how the user moves graphic elements displayed on a computer screen. Small Fish expresses sounds visually so that people with hearing disabilities can use it to play music. The concert location is equipped with devices that allow people with visual and hearing disabilities to enjoy the performance so that the music can be "heard" and appreciated by the entire audience, whether or not they have disabilities. The project was rated highly for creating new communication possibilities, not by presenting special needs concerts intended for people with disabilities, but rather by presenting participatory concerts that allow everyone to enjoy new forms of direct access to music.