Finally , there ’s a spell of wearable technical school that combines the piloting engineering of today with the lively style of the past times . A chemical group of students from Cornell University have create a GPS top hat that use guiding sound cue to help oneself users find their terminus hands - free .

According toHackaday , the hat feeds ambient audio flavour into earbuds . A mix of phase stir and amplitude make it seem like sound are coming from a specific focal point . Users only follow the sounds , which direct them leave , right , forward , or backward , until they make it at their name and address . According to the students’study , “ [ the hat ] does this by using the user ’s current GPS co-ordinate , the destination ’s GPS co-ordinate , and the exploiter ’s head orientation to raise sound through two - channel stereo headphones that can be perceived as coming from the direction of the destination . ”

Of course , the sound navigation hat is n’t really a viable replacement for other GPS devices . Instead , the student projection is a stylish illustration of new developments in navigational engineering . Hackaday explains that the port the students have created , which replaces visual cue with non - verbal audio cue , could one day be employ by apps to serve users navigate without reckon at their GPS gadget .

chiaralily, Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0

The technology , they explicate , could be of picky purpose for the visually afflicted . Instead of feeding step - by - gradation audio directions into an headphone , the GPS top hat emits a constant shade , that shifts as you convert direction , supply incessant directional stimulant . “ The twist represents a pace towards a walking - well-disposed hands free piloting solution that allows a substance abuser ’s attending to remain on their surroundings , ” the subject explains . “ Sound localization is also more nonrational so that the user can drop less prison term and attention to sue the instructions . ”

[ h / t : Hackaday ]