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Connected Objects Cycling

The FeelSpace belt pokes and prods you back home

Getting to a destination has never been easier with smart devices and their large, colorful screens capable of showing the exact way to a destination. While that’s a perfect solution when simply walking around, that’s not quite the case when it’s particularly sunny, there’s a lack of connectivity, or when riding a bike, easily becoming obtrusive to the activity at hand.

To address these navigational challenges, the team behind the FeelSpace belt took the information on the screen and found another way to communicate it: through directional vibrations on the belt itself. This means that vibrations on the belt go off whenever the wearer needs to change direction, making navigation effortless.

The Bluetooth-connected FeelSpace belt has three modes: Compass Mode always vibrates towards magnetic north to augment general orientation, Beeline Mode sets a destination but allows for light exploration so that wearers can find their own way to it while Routing Mode is a strict turn-by-turn implementation perfect for the blind.
$899 gets backers a FeelSpace belt by December 2016. Its flexible Indiegogo campaign is looking for $25,000 by July 2016.

FeelSpace is the polar opposite of something like the Telepathy Walker, which employs a Google Glasses-type device to communicate walking directions. In other words, an obtrusive solution FeelSpace wants to do away with by taking advantage of the body’s own senses instead. This approach is similar to the Sunu that uses ultrasonic waves to help the blind avoid obstacles at head or torso level. Together, both could be quite a match as their multitude of applications for so many people can’t be ignored.

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