North Paw
sensebridge.net
sensebridge.net
I've mostly stopped wearing it though, because it looks a lot like a GPS-based parole-monitoring device, and I got tired of questions/comments :)
So you would say that this quote isn't exaggeration?
If I start in a familiar place, then go into somewhere unfamiliar, like a new building, my ability to keep track of cardinal directions is significantly better, which helps keep me oriented to e.g. find my way out of the building.
There are certain places that trip up my sense of direction, especially Spokane, WA. In that city, south feels west to me, and strongly so. Weird.
In the southern hemisphere.
When I travel in the US your "sun in the south at midday" _really_ messes things up.
And when I'm in London and there's no detectable angle to the sun through the clouds, and all medium distance travel happens on the underground, I'm even more completely lost. I have friends in Maida Vale, Edgeware Rd and Marylebone , and I _know_ they're all within walking distance, but there's no way I could dead reckon my way from one to the other. All I know is how to get from there right tube station exit to their houses or nearest pub/cafe...
I suspect it comes from an innate, unconscious comprehension of the highlights and the shadows (since the sun will typically be in the south). And I don't mean the obvious shadows but even the subtle ones.
With practice and perhaps assistance, e.g. North Paw, one could learn to harness the association between light and direction anywhere, not just near huge bodies of water of known direction.
It should be no surprise that as one becomes accustomed to one's own environment and the way they navigate it.
Though I think the cooler question is if we can build a phone/smart-watch app that can do this. Is there a way to vibrate the watch in a northernly direction or something like vibrating when the user turns north (deceptively tricky).
It sounds like the original research used a belt, which to me sounds like a more subtle device to wear:
> The original idea for North Paw comes from research done at University of Osnabrück in Germany. In this study, rather than an anklet, the researchers used a belt. They wore the belt non-stop for six weeks, and reported successive stages of integration.
https://www.dw.com/en/radiation-student-raises-fake-bomb-ale...
It would be really cool to see another version with smaller electronics, flex PCB, etc.
Other features, like connection to a smart phone for waypoint navigation would be neat.
Having everything integrated into a baseball cap makes the most sense.
This could easily be a Fitbit type device on wrist.
The key components are a compass and motors, and since 2009 those have been dramatically miniaturized, thanks to the smartphone industry. Combine that with flex PCB and I bet you could fit everything in the form factor of a slap bracelet.
One of the "hmm... things to make" is a lidar detector for things behind a car that then is mapped to an array of the vibration motors that are in the back of a driver's seat - so that you could feel a car passing you.
As a supplemental system the advantages would include redundancy, lack of a blind spot, and better situational awareness even when you're not planning to change lanes.
With a mirror I'd have to be constantly checking which not only takes my eyes off the road ahead, it makes the ride much less enjoyable.
It's like blind spot monitoring and rear cameras on cars. I'd been driving without those for decades, but now that I have them I wouldn't buy a car without them.
The Varia radar also connects to the Wahoo bike computer, which is great.
> Question - why is either of those options better than a mirror?
Where are you going to put a rearview mirror on a {bicycle?, motorcycle?}? Sure you can have mirrors for the sides for lane changes, but behind you?
At most, when I'm at a red light, I lean over slightly to make sure the next person is actually going to stop and not rear-end me. Otherwise, while in motion, I have never felt the need for a rearview mirror on any form of two-wheeled vehicle.
> In all spaces marked for city administered public parking within the city, all vehicles shall be parked with the front end of the vehicle facing into the space provided for parking. It shall be unlawful for any person to back any vehicle into such parking space. No person shall stand or park a vehicle other than at the angle to the curb or into the roadway other than as indicated by signs or markings.
I recall this being the case in Palo Alto for city lots at one time and I believe that San Francisco city lots are similarly ordinanced.
Unless you know the city, it's safest to park "the standard way". No one wants to get a ticket in an out of state city.
Furthermore, there is some "unless you do have a backup camera, the backing into a spot between two cars is more difficult than going in forwards and then using the lot space upon leaving to properly orient."
Lastly, if you are to make use of the trunk of the car, most parking lots are set up to allow easier access when not backed in.
There's probably a practicality argument to be made for 90 degree parking to be nose in, because I think it probably results in less blocking of the road is drivers are forced to do the "easier/quicker" front first drive into a spot when arriving avoiding extended time doing "complicated reversing manoeuvres" while other people are trying to get past, and are forced to wait in the parking spot for a big enough gap in traffic (or another driver wanting the spot) before backing out.
Anecdotally this does not seem to be the case any more, I live in the area and have never been ticketed for backing in. I usually don’t park any other way. You know, in case of zombies and I have to leave quickly.
> Unless you know the city, it's safest to park "the standard way”.
Depends on the city. Which requires…knowing the city? Or at least looking about. So I think that dismisses any idea that one should default to nose-in. Just park like everyone else is doing if you’re so worried. Only thing I’ve seen people ticketed for in SF is not curbing their wheels, which, likely you won’t notice or know about if you’re from out of town.
> Furthermore, there is some "unless you do have a backup camera, the backing into a spot between two cars is more difficult than going in forwards and then using the lot space upon leaving to properly orient."
This is only the case if you have never practiced backing up. It’s actually much easier to make precise movements when you’re reversing, due to the front wheel steering. I’m grateful that this was taught to me by my driving course.
> Lastly, if you are to make use of the trunk of the car, most parking lots are set up to allow easier access when not backed in.
This is true. I park nose-in at Costco.
Is there a particular rationale for this rule?
You're much more likely to see such ordinances in states that don't require front license plates. https://blog.appwinit.com/states-that-require-a-front-licens...
Note that this is for "for city administered public parking within the city" and doesn't apply to private / commercial lots (which may have their own parking restrictions).
Although this assumes you have a massive car for an actual reason.
I'd be very attempted to gruffly retort "murder and racketeering charges" and see how fast they stop being curious.
The anklet is reasonably unobtrusive, and unless you are wearing form-fitting pants, you can keep it under your pants leg to keep it out of sight. Even if you're wearing tighter pants, shorts, or a skirt, and you don't mind the under-house-arrest tracker vibe, it's still wearable, and might make for a fun conversation topic.
Agreed that the belt is better from the standpoint of what the device is for, but I think the anklet is a bit more practical. I know I would definitely wear it more often (more or less all the time), but I could not say the same about a belt.
You can also query the compass using the API:
https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/
and issue alerts using the built-in vibration motor; it would be pretty easy to build a Connect app to do this.
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/talk-compass/id1540530352 (has speech prompts, works while screen is locked)
- https://apps.apple.com/qa/app/talking-compass/id1476144391 (speech prompts did not work for me)
- https://apps.apple.com/de/app/blind-compass/id1546647415 (did not work while screen is locked)[0] https://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/northpaw-downloads...
The low-cost services don't seem able to directly eat Eagle-format files, so I could only price it on Eurocircuits [1] where it came out to €50+ which seems like a lot.
Strange for an open project to publish in a proprietary format.
A board of that size with just two layers should be $2 + shipping for five boards with e.g. JLCPCB. A bit more if you want to go lead-free.
It morphed into a product for the visually impaired and is still available today. [2]
[1] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C34&q=fee... [2] https://feelspace.de/en/
Another fun fact: evidently, one third of Earth's languages (not one third of speakers mind you) do not have words for "left" and "right" and instead use cardinal terms for everything. Speakers of such languages presumably then must know their orientation at all times.
Huh, interesting. Do you know if they actually do know their orientation at all times, or is it just that "west" is always "left" and "east" is always "right", regardless of absolute orientation?
In Guadalajara, Mexico, where I live. I've seen it first hand. People of certain age that lived near the center of the city use an absolute system for navigating the city, and to give directions on how to get to places with phrases like "up the river", "down the river", of an old river no longer existent that used to pass through the center of the city. And they always know which way goes to the center of the city, even when going outside the city center and to unknown neighborhoods. My father is one of such people.
I’ve mentioned it a few times around here, but James C Scott’s Seeing Like A State* has a fascinating look at the way language changed to prefer “overview”-type ways of describing location/distance/etc, as opposed to these more situational/embodied measures & directions which were previously commonplace.
- https://www.wear.works/ (for blind marathon runners)
- https://www.carlosterminel.com/wearable-compass (scroll down for various pictures)
- https://pganssle.github.io/HaptiCap/
- https://blog.adafruit.com/2020/04/08/this-haptic-compass-belt-vibrates-northward-wearablewednesday/
- https://makeitbreakitfixit.com/2016/06/22/haptic-compass-band-revisited/https://www.wear.works/ (for blind marathon runners)
https://www.carlosterminel.com/wearable-compass (scroll down for various pictures)
https://pganssle.github.io/HaptiCap/
https://blog.adafruit.com/2020/04/08/this-haptic-compass-bel...
https://makeitbreakitfixit.com/2016/06/22/haptic-compass-ban...
Really basic concept but helpful for in-city navigation for someone without sight. The downside is it works by using both channels in a stereo headphone setup, which means you are dulling your audial sensitivity to the area around you.
Something like this seems to be an even better concept in terms of addressing that.
I also wonder if this could simply be added to existing smartwatches.
Many headphones have a feature where they pass-thru the external audio, so perhaps you could use that with this as an audio overlay.
It‘s a planned city, but not with a grid, instead it’s fan-shaped, even more pronounced than Versailles.
When I was in the Navy as an Officer of the Deck (OOD), I used to be able to visually measure distances on flat water in the range of ~500 yards to a mile within a few tens of yards because I had an internal sense of how big objects were and how they would look at those ranges. This was because I constantly had to measure ranges on radars and via moboards[0] when I was a OOD-in-training and so I learned quickly how to measure distances visually.
I also learned how to estimate how a ship was moving in ports and transit canals and how to adjust that using engines simply by looking around, much like you can adjust how you walk on a surface depending on senses from your whole body about what type of surface it is, how stable it is, etc. On gravel, most people can sense a bit of slippage as they walk from their feet, they might sense their body alignment from feet to head moving slightly due to that slippage, etc. and all those senses are used to tell "I need to slow down here" or whatever. For ships, you get an idea for what direction the bow and stern are moving, how they relate to your control angles, how that relates to what you see around you, and also integrates your body senses, because your body is a finely-tuned acceleration sensing machine.
Anyways, I wish I were still an OOD today, because I would try and create some tools like this that would help me there. Even this anklet itself would have been helpful when I was on duty, to tell me when the helmsman was asleep!
> For ships, you get an idea for what direction the bow and stern are moving
I wouldn't've thought of this, but of course that's critical to know on a ship. And it's certainly something outside of standard human experience, since we're small enough in that dimension to not have to worry about the difference in movement between our front and rear sides. The fact that you were able to gain an intuitive feel for this highlights how adaptable the human brain is.
It’s a useful nano superpower, though. It’s quite often that I use it to pick the right direction to head without having to get out a map on my phone, or other such cheat.
As the parent comment mentions, there are times when it is tricky. I often emerge from one of several exits from an unfamiliar London Underground station and have to spend a few minutes orientating myself. Often the fastest way is to just look for one of those maps they put in glass cabinets and figure it out from the shape of the road junctions.
In addition to a north facing mode, I also added a location mode which would always point to a specified lat/lon location. This was cool for just randomly exploring while always knowing where home is.
[1] https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/north-sense-cybernetic-i...
(0) - ie: HokeyPokey would be a line of kids standing in a certain direction - you put your north foot in, you take your north foot out, you put your south foot in.. etc
a) The user must be wearing the anklet at all times to initially calibrate but their body is able to determine how much rotation / transposition they have undergone in order to point north. b) After training, one could tell which way is north without ever having to put on the anklet again
But once users spend a lot of time in an area wearing the device, they have a better ability to navigate that area even with the device removed. I imagine it's similar to how you would be able to navigate your home in low light
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/06/first-hum...
Firefighters navigating in smoke-filled buildings could benefit from something that helps them maintain an absolute sense of direction, but guessing that might be too hostile an environment.
I wonder if anyone tried to develop that.
then again, this thing could greatly teach how to do this, as long as you stopped wearing it eventually