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CORVALLIS - A company that evolved from research begun at Oregon State University has been honored by a national business association for its work in creating new technology that aids people with visual impairments in studying advanced mathematics and science.

ViewPlus Technologies of Corvallis has been recognized in the technology category as the Outstanding Incubator Client of the Business Enterprise Center 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.

The Corvallis company was recognized for its innovative new technologies that can help people who are blind or have other visual impairments gain access to graphical information, which is often used in the study of mathematics and science.

Sales of its 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.

"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.

"We've always known the market is there for the types of products our company can produce," he added, "and we hope to do even better as the world economy improves."

This graphics embosser can produce a combination of Braille and tactile graphics directly from most Microsoft Windows computer applications. The basic research on it was done at OSU as part of the Science Access Project directed by Gardner, which the university then patented and licensed to ViewPlus Technologies.

This 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.