Haptic GPS Points Cyclists in the Right Direction: Mapbag

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Josh Billions demonstrates the Mapbag at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. It is a bicycle messenger bag with a ring of vibrating motors sewn into its strap, whose positions correspond to compass points. This soft circuit project uses a Lilypad in conjunction with the gps feature in an Iphone, allowing the user to set a destination and be given constant haptic feedback through the fabric in order to stay on course and in the right direction. This acts as an exploratory wayfinding tool - a fun and useful alternative to a standard turn-by-turn map. http://www.joshbillions.org/ http://makerfaire.com/pub/e/6141

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  Science & Technology

[brian940808]

map map map map, map map map map, yayyy!!!

[survivordude941]

its like what you would have on a video game compass on a HUD, it has an arrow pointing to were you need to go, as you move the arrow moves same idea with the motors

[riothero313]

Excellent idea but, I think the vibration motors could be arranged more intuitively. Instead of compass coordinates why not real world directions like forward, left right and back? You could even mount them around the belt of a backpack that has a waist strap. This way it would be steering you in the right direction.

[spanish4real]

Jimmy Johns needs this

[Rudy De Volder]

Hi Josh, awesome!!!

i'm just beginning to program the Arduino, and i thought about doing something similar, just an Arduino with GPS-module to be helpfull for blind people, ( i have a blind friend ) . And downloading simply a track of coordinates to follow via PC. But this gave me goosebumps. Do you share your code for the Arduino or do you have some tips for me?