Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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 ex…
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.