This weekend I finally finished my compass anklet. It’s pretty impressive how quickly the human brain can include a new sense. I’m looking forward to taking it geocaching!
What do you do with the knowledge of which way North is? Are the motors continuously vibrating or pulsed? When you take it off do you feel the absence (absense?) like an amputation?
When I wear the device, there are eight motors positioned around my ankle. The one pointing most closely to north vibrates. As I move, there is sometimes some lag before a motor changes state, but when I’m still, there is always one motor buzzing, or else two motors kind of taking turns. (Actually, one of the motors doesn’t work, because I burned the circuit board at its contact >< But that still tells me something.)
I’m not totally used to it yet—the buzzing is a little uncomfortable when it goes on for too long in one spot (like sitting in a car driving straight for several minutes). I think it might be an improvement if the motors were pulsed instead of continuous. But, if I am walking around, changing directions, it feels just fine. But I haven’t been using it enough for me to feel a strong absence or blindness when I take it off.
How do I use the knowledge? One of my hobbies is geocaching. In geocaching, I usually need to look at a GPS receiver and a compass alternately, while also not tripping over roots and while looking around for my goal. I haven’t gotten to try it yet, but with the ankle device (it’s called North Paw), I’m hoping to reduce my visual burden by transferring some responsibility to my tactile modality.
I could use this sense. I imagine it is similar to up and down feeling. I could use many more such. Where is my car for example. Which direction and how far. A combined device for several informations of this kind should equip and serve me well.
Nope, not me. But the video on that site looks a lot like a bigger version of the inner guts of the North Paw. Just to be clear for any who didn’t follow the link in my comment, I put together a kit that Sensebridge sells—I did not design the anklet.
This weekend I finally finished my compass anklet. It’s pretty impressive how quickly the human brain can include a new sense. I’m looking forward to taking it geocaching!
What do you do with the knowledge of which way North is? Are the motors continuously vibrating or pulsed? When you take it off do you feel the absence (absense?) like an amputation?
When I wear the device, there are eight motors positioned around my ankle. The one pointing most closely to north vibrates. As I move, there is sometimes some lag before a motor changes state, but when I’m still, there is always one motor buzzing, or else two motors kind of taking turns. (Actually, one of the motors doesn’t work, because I burned the circuit board at its contact >< But that still tells me something.)
I’m not totally used to it yet—the buzzing is a little uncomfortable when it goes on for too long in one spot (like sitting in a car driving straight for several minutes). I think it might be an improvement if the motors were pulsed instead of continuous. But, if I am walking around, changing directions, it feels just fine. But I haven’t been using it enough for me to feel a strong absence or blindness when I take it off.
How do I use the knowledge? One of my hobbies is geocaching. In geocaching, I usually need to look at a GPS receiver and a compass alternately, while also not tripping over roots and while looking around for my goal. I haven’t gotten to try it yet, but with the ankle device (it’s called North Paw), I’m hoping to reduce my visual burden by transferring some responsibility to my tactile modality.
I could use this sense. I imagine it is similar to up and down feeling. I could use many more such. Where is my car for example. Which direction and how far. A combined device for several informations of this kind should equip and serve me well.
Very interesting. I keep a list of haptic-compass links and I recently added http://www.monkeysandrobots.com/hapticcompass to it—was that you?
Nope, not me. But the video on that site looks a lot like a bigger version of the inner guts of the North Paw. Just to be clear for any who didn’t follow the link in my comment, I put together a kit that Sensebridge sells—I did not design the anklet.