Music guides cyclists in experimental navigation system

Music does many things – it soothes the soul, it calms the mind, heck, if technophiles have it their own way, it can even assist cyclists in the future navigate around. After all, relying on visual navigation might be fine if you’re in a car, but whenever you are on a bicycle, this is definitely a huge distraction and could prove to be dangerous since shifting your focus away from the road is never a good thing – especially when you’re on a two-wheeler. A research team in the Netherlands figured out that there has to be a better way to do things, which is why they came across this audio-only navigation system that will rely on an Android-powered smartphone that is hooked up to a pair of headphones, helping guide users to a target location with music which has been shifted to the left or right in an artificial manner to indicate direction.

At point of publishing, such headphone-based audio navigation aids have been researched before, mostly to aid visually impaired folks get around, while helping others explore virtual environments, improve safety for car drivers and airplane navigation. Guess this tuneful variation of your everyday GPS navigation system is a no-brainer when you think about it, as you can always concentrate on what’s ahead and around you instead of constantly looking out for that exit or turn, especially when you are in unfamiliar territory.

Let music be your guide!

Edwin Kee
Categories: Audio, Transportation
Tags: experiment, GPS