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So this only vibrates when it faces north. I wonder if that is more or less useful/comfortable/noticeable than the belts[0] or anklets[1] that always have a vib

by goda90 10y ago

So this only vibrates when it faces north. I wonder if that is more or less useful/comfortable/noticeable than the belts[0] or anklets[1] that always have a vibration in the direction of north. [0]http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Tactile-Feedback-Compass-Belt/ http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Tactile-Feedba... [1]https://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/ https://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/

maaaats 10y ago
Yeah, was hoping it actually would connect to something and give of different sensations based on direction, which in time the body/mind might recognize. This seemed more like an art-experiment than something cool.
- lmm 10y ago
  AIUI people who wore the anklet version found they quickly ceased being conscious of the vibrations per se, and just had a sense of which way was north. ISTR people learn to see via a camera connected to a pad of electrodes on their tongue. The brain is pretty good at adapting to sensory input, it doesn't have to be wired directly to your nerves or anything.
  - avian 10y ago
    Years back I wore the Northpaw anklet for a few weeks. I found that it was certainly possible to determine north with it, but never got from feeling vibrations to some "sense of which was is north". In fact, I found that it sometimes took a bit of turning around to get a feel of the direction. I did not find it a very helpful tool for navigation. In my experience I orient myself by landmarks and constantly knowing exactly which way is north was not that useful, even when walking in nature. I did not try it in a completely unknown place though. Perhaps the most interesting part was how it corrected the intuitive picture of how my home city is oriented - the anklet clearly showed that streets that I always associated with straight north-south and east-west lines were curved and not so perfectly aligned.
    - dpark 10y ago
      When I lived in the Bay Area, my mental map was rotated by about 90 degrees clockwise. It was constantly annoying to be driving a different direction than I thought, and made actual map use really awkward as I'd search for basic landmarks for a full minute before my mental map would "reset" to match the physical map. Since then, I've wondered if something like this would help keep my mental map more aligned with reality. I don't think it's a coincidence that I started using GPS navigation heavily around this same time. My mental mapping in general has degraded a lot since I started relying on turn-by-turn magic for all non-familiar navigation. edit: Is there an off-the-shelf solution like the Northpaw that looks less like a house arrest cuff? I can't imagine wearing something that clunky as a usual thing. The market demand for this in a sleek package is probably close to zero, though.
pg7739 10y ago
I created a version of this that is built into a hat: https://pganssle.github.io/HaptiCap/ https://pganssle.github.io/HaptiCap/ Haven't had much time since then to update the instructions on how to build it or make significant improvements, but I personally thought the hat form factor was better than the anklet or belt. Even in my prototype version it's pretty hard to tell it's anything other than a normal hat.

by goda90 10y ago

maaaats 10y ago

Yeah, was hoping it actually would connect to something and give of different sensations based on direction, which in time the body/mind might recognize. This seemed more like an art-experiment than something cool.

lmm 10y ago
AIUI people who wore the anklet version found they quickly ceased being conscious of the vibrations per se, and just had a sense of which way was north. ISTR people learn to see via a camera connected to a pad of electrodes on their tongue. The brain is pretty good at adapting to sensory input, it doesn't have to be wired directly to your nerves or anything.
- avian 10y ago
  Years back I wore the Northpaw anklet for a few weeks. I found that it was certainly possible to determine north with it, but never got from feeling vibrations to some "sense of which was is north". In fact, I found that it sometimes took a bit of turning around to get a feel of the direction. I did not find it a very helpful tool for navigation. In my experience I orient myself by landmarks and constantly knowing exactly which way is north was not that useful, even when walking in nature. I did not try it in a completely unknown place though. Perhaps the most interesting part was how it corrected the intuitive picture of how my home city is oriented - the anklet clearly showed that streets that I always associated with straight north-south and east-west lines were curved and not so perfectly aligned.
  - dpark 10y ago
    When I lived in the Bay Area, my mental map was rotated by about 90 degrees clockwise. It was constantly annoying to be driving a different direction than I thought, and made actual map use really awkward as I'd search for basic landmarks for a full minute before my mental map would "reset" to match the physical map. Since then, I've wondered if something like this would help keep my mental map more aligned with reality. I don't think it's a coincidence that I started using GPS navigation heavily around this same time. My mental mapping in general has degraded a lot since I started relying on turn-by-turn magic for all non-familiar navigation. edit: Is there an off-the-shelf solution like the Northpaw that looks less like a house arrest cuff? I can't imagine wearing something that clunky as a usual thing. The market demand for this in a sleek package is probably close to zero, though.

pg7739 10y ago

I created a version of this that is built into a hat: https://pganssle.github.io/HaptiCap/ https://pganssle.github.io/HaptiCap/ Haven't had much time since then to update the instructions on how to build it or make significant improvements, but I personally thought the hat form factor was better than the anklet or belt. Even in my prototype version it's pretty hard to tell it's anything other than a normal hat.