Google Maps, Apple Maps, Bing Maps, Waze, and etc. are all perfectly good solutions for finding your way to somewhere new or if you’re trying to chart unfamiliar territory. However it does rely on us to keep looking at our phones to see where we are going, which means that using it while driving might be dangerous, and using it while walking could see us bumping into others.
However over at Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, it seems that some of its students have come up with an interesting way of navigating, which is by plopping on a top hat that relies on sound to navigate and to tell its wearer where to go. The project was submitted to the folks at Hackaday by Bruce Land, one of the instructors at the university.
Basically instead of more traditional audio cues like, “Turn left,” or “Make a right in 300 meters”, this top hat navigational system will project audio in the direction that you’re supposed to be walking. For example if you’re supposed to keep walking straight, sound will come from both sides of the earphones.
However if you’re supposed to take a turn or if you’re facing the wrong way, it will keep sounding in that direction until you are in the correct position. It’s an interesting project albeit the form is rather unwieldy, but if you’re interested in learning more about it, the technical details can be found on Cornell University’s website.