If Samsung offered us a digital camera for the blind, you must excuse us for wondering if they were being serious. But that is exactly what they have done. Winning the Gold Award in the 2008 International Design Excellence (IDEA) competition, under the Communications Tools Concept category, Samsung offers us an innovative digital camera designed for the visually impaired.

Named 'Touch Sight', the camera is designed to help visually impaired to 'feel' images. There's no Live view or 3 inch LCD, instead it comes with 'a lightweight, flexible Braille display sheet which displays a 3D image by embossing the surface, allowing the user to touch their photos', says Chueh Lee from Samsung China. The camera also automatically records 3 seconds of sound right after the shutter release button is clicked, allowing the photographer to replay the sound while replaying the image on the Braille sheet.

This may first appear to be a ridicules idea, but the designers have done enough researches to believe that it is not. Visually impaired people develop heightened senses of touch, heat, and sound. By placing the camera on the person's forehead, it not only allows the photographer to feel the live image using their skin but also allows the camera to be stabilised. Visually impaired people have no problem sensing distance or estimating light sources by sound and heat. Aided by the Braille screen, they should be able to have a pretty good idea of the composition and lights. The three seconds recording of ambient sound help them identify where the picture was taken when playing back.

While the 'Touch Sight' is still more of a concept than a mass-produced camera, it is nevertheless the first and a very promising step towards making cameras for the blind. Fingers crossed that we'll see these products appearing on our site in a few years time. We may as well see photo exhibitions by the visually impaired in the future. After all, extraordinary eyesight does not change the word but rather imagination that does.