Cities Unlocked

Topics: Explore, Move

Research state: Opportunity

Visioning workshop, opportunity: Walking the City

Orientation is exceptionally difficult, with little or no visual cues and confusing soundscapes, alternative solutions are needed to guide…

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Topics: Explore, Interact, Move

Research state: Opportunity

Visioning workshop, opportunity: Street Furniture

Existing street furniture and amenities can be a hindrance to the blind and partially sighted. Shared spaces and open streets can disrupt…

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Topics: Explore, Hear

Research state: Challenge

Distinctive and predictable sounds in the urban environment are key source of navigational information

Changes in the sound of traffic, the sounds of different trains or of a shouting market stall holder are all examples of useful and…

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Topics: Explore, Interact

Research state: Challenge

Distinctive and predictable smells in the urban environment can work as useful landmarks

From fish to fried chicken people with sight loss use all sorts of smells as navigational cues. Like any other landmark for a smell to be…

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Topics: Explore, Find

Research state: Challenge

Features of the environment that were not intended as navigation infrastructure are often still used as useful and important landmarks by people with sight loss

If a feature of the environment is detectable by them and always in the same place it can be used as a navigational landmark for someone…

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Topics: Move

Research state: Demonstrator

Leaving home

Kate leaves her house and walks down Tamarisk Avenue towards Reading town centre. She’s informed that there’s a new dropped kerb…

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Topics: Move, Touch

Research state: Opportunity

Horizon scan, innovation. Tactile sight wayfinding belt

Developed by Tactile Sight, a spinoff of the University of Waterloo, the Tactile Belt functions much as a route planner such as Google…

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Topics: Hear, Move, Touch

Research state: Opportunity

Horizon scan, innovation. Raynes Tacdots tactile paving

Designed by Raynes Associates, Tacdots are easy to install and easy to use tactile wayfinding dots. The dots can be used for inside and…

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Topics: Emotional, Explore

Research state: Demonstrator

Enjoying the journey

The train heads into London Paddington. Kate receives information about the route and is told that she’s passing Windsor Castle. The…

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Topics: Find, Move

Research state: Opportunity

Horizon scan, innovation. BlindMaps braille interface for smartphones

Andrew Spitz, Markus Schmeiduch and Ruben van der Vleuten took part in a 36 hour project at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design…

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Topics: Explore, See

Research state: Opportunity

Horizon scan, innovation. BrainPort device to see with the tongue

Sunglasses are worn by the user with a small digital video camera placed in the centre to capture visuals of the person’s…

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Topics: Explore, See

Research state: Opportunity

Horizon scan, concept. Keiichi Matsuda augmented city 3D

As part of his master-thesis, Keiichi Matsuda created a video that illustrates how we may experience our physical environment in the future…

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