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North Paw

sensebridge.net

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Re: North Paw

#31

Post by staplung »

IIRC Oliver Sacks was interested in this kind of thing. Think there's an episode of Radiolab where he talks about how ho used to carry around a couple of extremely strong, oblong magnets in his pockets that would stay oriented north even while he moved around. He wanted to see if his brain could learn to make sense of the input and develop a new sense, akin to the magnetic navigation that retain birds have. Not sure if he ever developed the new sense but the comments here suggest that he might have been able to.

Another fun fact: evidently, one third of Earth's languages (not one third of speakers mind you) do not have words for "left" and "right" and instead use cardinal terms for everything. Speakers of such languages presumably then must know their orientation at all times.

Re: North Paw

#32

Post by etrautmann »

isaacdl wrote: post #5

I own one of these - bought it pre-made years ago rather than assembling the kit myself. It's a ton of fun, and really does give me a more-intuitive sense of direction. After wearing it for a while around places I go to regularly, I keep that intuitive sense of direction without having to wear it. I've mostly stopped wearing it though, because it looks a lot like a GPS-based parole-monitoring device, and I got tired…

I'm curious how well oriented you felt before. I currently always feel like I can point to north no matter what, so I'm wondering if I'd benefit from this or not? I suppose those abilities get worse when I'm not in a city with an aligned grid or inside a building, like hiking on a trail where you can't see the sun. Still, I'm not sure what I'd gain from this and curious if there's a next level of awareness to attain.

Re: North Paw

#33

Post by irrational »

soperj wrote: post #22

I remember reading about how certain languages didn't have words for left & right, but used cardinal directions instead(0), and always wondered how they have an intuitive sense of where north is just to make themselves clear. It would certainly help to have it though. (0) - ie: HokeyPokey would be a line of kids standing in a certain direction - you put your north foot in, you take your north foot out, you put your s…

The two main ways are based on geographical landmarks (west is towards the ocean, south is towards the desert, north is downriver, etc.) and the other is based on the sun/moon. East is the direction the sun/moon rises and west is the direction the sun/moon sets. One of the fascinating things I learned about antiquity is they would often orient their maps so east (the direction of the rising sun) was at the top of the map. They didn’t have magnetic compasses so there wasn’t anything special about north to cause them to orient their maps in that direction.

Re: North Paw

#34

Post by LeifCarrotson »

maliker wrote: post #7
mabbo wrote: post #2

> As you might have guessed by the long period with no posting, Sensebridge is out of business. We’ve been out of stock on Northpaw Kits since late 2016; we do not have plans to make more kits.

I wonder if any smart watch apps can reliably achieve something similar. I looked briefly for an Apple watch app that did it but no luck.

My Garmin contains a magnetic compass and can display your ABCs (altitude, barometer, compass) on the watchface or widget.

You can also query the compass using the API:

https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/

and issue alerts using the built-in vibration motor; it would be pretty easy to build a Connect app to do this.

Re: North Paw

#35

Post by BeefWellington »

Along these lines is an audio compass app I came across when looking for good visually impaired navigation tools: https://staging.f-droid.org/en/packages/cz.harvie.northdog/

Really basic concept but helpful for in-city navigation for someone without sight. The downside is it works by using both channels in a stereo headphone setup, which means you are dulling your audial sensitivity to the area around you.

Something like this seems to be an even better concept in terms of addressing that.

I also wonder if this could simply be added to existing smartwatches.

Re: North Paw

#36

Post by hex4def6 »

isaacdl wrote: post #5

I own one of these - bought it pre-made years ago rather than assembling the kit myself. It's a ton of fun, and really does give me a more-intuitive sense of direction. After wearing it for a while around places I go to regularly, I keep that intuitive sense of direction without having to wear it. I've mostly stopped wearing it though, because it looks a lot like a GPS-based parole-monitoring device, and I got tired…

I worked with the guy that designed this gadget (Hi Eric!), back in ~2009 or so.

It would be really cool to see another version with smaller electronics, flex PCB, etc.

Other features, like connection to a smart phone for waypoint navigation would be neat.

Re: North Paw

#37

Post by _Microft »

Invictus0 wrote: post #14

I made a belt that did this while I was in college. Some pics: https://imgur.com/a/FNbtdEO

Great thing! If you want to revisit this project: you can get PCBs made with e.g. JLCPCB, PCBWay, OSHpark or others for a just a few dollars plus shipping now. That might help with the rats nest of cables that you had in that box.

Re: North Paw

#38

Post by tokamak-teapot »

googlryas wrote: post #3

I thought about building something like this about 20 years ago, but decided not to.This is actually a skill you can teach yourself if you just start paying attention. It works pretty much everywhere except for in labyrinth-like buildings. The last time I couldn't figure out which Way North was was in Lord Leicester hotel in warwick 5 years ago.

I’m not sure if I have an intuition for which way the compass directions are due to nature or nurture. I was encouraged to think about it from an early age, but that doesn’t prove I wouldn’t have just had that kind of intuition anyway.

It’s a useful nano superpower, though. It’s quite often that I use it to pick the right direction to head without having to get out a map on my phone, or other such cheat.

As the parent comment mentions, there are times when it is tricky. I often emerge from one of several exits from an unfamiliar London Underground station and have to spend a few minutes orientating myself. Often the fastest way is to just look for one of those maps they put in glass cabinets and figure it out from the shape of the road junctions.

Re: North Paw

#39

Post by foobarian »

etrautmann wrote: post #32
isaacdl wrote: post #5

I own one of these - bought it pre-made years ago rather than assembling the kit myself. It's a ton of fun, and really does give me a more-intuitive sense of direction. After wearing it for a while around places I go to regularly, I keep that intuitive sense of direction without having to wear it. I've mostly stopped wearing it though, because it looks a lot like a GPS-based parole-monitoring device, and I got tired…

I'm curious how well oriented you felt before. I currently always feel like I can point to north no matter what, so I'm wondering if I'd benefit from this or not? I suppose those abilities get worse when I'm not in a city with an aligned grid or inside a building, like hiking on a trail where you can't see the sun. Still, I'm not sure what I'd gain from this and curious if there's a next level of awareness to attain.

I'll venture a guess that you played a lot of video games with minimaps in your time :-)

Re: North Paw

#40

Post by omnibrain »

googlryas wrote: post #16
aleken wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with this guy. Never tried Lord Leicester hotel in Warwick though, but looks like it's too late. Shut down.

Yeah, it's condos now:( very interesting building though - built around 1650 and was expanded/modified every 50 years or so for the past 450 years. Absolute maze to navigate, especially because "perpendicular" hallways might actually be at 80 degrees or so.

That‘s exactly what f**s you up when you try to navigate Karlsruhe in Germany.

It‘s a planned city, but not with a grid, instead it’s fan-shaped, even more pronounced than Versailles.

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