This article was first published in the August 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
This headset could replace guide dogs for the visually impaired. Developed by Microsoft and UK charity Guide Dogs, the vibro-tactile device prototype is equal parts satnav, seeing-eye dog, and tour guide. It tethers to a phone's GPS and Bluetooth connection to create a three-dimensional soundscape of the surroundings. Wrapping around the back of your head, it rests atop your jawbone, sending vibrations via conduction into the user's skull (as worn by early adopter Dave Kent). "It doesn't sit in your ear like headphones because that would block out ambient sound," says Natasa Milic-Frayling, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, who was part of the development team along with engineer Steve Hodges and Angus Foreman, chief technology officer of Microsoft Services. A patter of footsteps straight ahead leads the way; higher-pitched pinging moves around you in three dimensions to let you know whether you're wandering off in the wrong direction.
Embedded in the back of the headband are three sensors: an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnetometer, together forming a digital compass. "These three sensors all combine so that, as you rotate your head, we send a Bluetooth signal to the phone, which shows how your head is changing direction," explains Hodges. The headset recalculates the wearer's position up to 100 times per minute, and the phone spits back audio that seems to be coming from above or below, left or right, near or far. The invention isn't just about positioning you on the pavement. "One of our ambitions is to allow partially sighted people to be more spontaneous," says Foreman. A built-in Bluetooth beacon tells wearers when they pass major landmarks -- from whichever direction the landmark is, based on their location. Wear the headset on a bus and it'll tell you when your stop is close.
Initial trials by partially sighted people showed improvement for test subjects on ten of 17 measures, including confidence on the streets. But before the invention can have widespread usage, mainstream technology has to catch up -- and it could take years to do so. GPS coverage isn't yet stable enough for the headset to work everywhere. Next step -- reinventing GPS?