Engineers from Japan have invented a prototype device that places GPS navigation technology into a pair of glasses, which they call a “Wearable Personal Navigation System”. Created at the University of Electro-Communications’ Nakajima Laboratory and displayed in Tokyo at the Wireless Japan 2010 expo, these devices feature a battery powered microcomputer, as well as a magnetic directional sensor that can be lit up using LED lights.
These glasses operate is very simply. All you need to do is enter your desired destination into a computer and download that information onto the glasses’ hard drive. A walking route will be calculated, sent over to the glasses, and can immediately be used to guide you to your destination.
These glasses also have internal LED lights positioned in a circular fashion around the lens frame. The LED lights are visible in a user’s peripheral field of vision, so they won’t distract the wearer from what’s going on in front of them. These small lights surrounding the frame will change their color in order to show the user which direction he or she should be walking in.
These glasses represent the forefront of GPS equipment as we know it, and they also aim to fix some of the major problems that current GPS systems impose. GPS devices of today, like smartphones and vehicle navigation systems, often require you to look down at a display while in motion – preventing you from watching where you’re going – which could be very dangerous if you’re driving at high speeds or in a high traffic urban environment. With these glasses, users can look forward instead of looking down.
This technology is relatively new, and engineers are still working out the kinks in the system to make sure they’re as accurate as possible, even in those areas without satellite coverage. (Since the GPS coordinates are pre-programmed into the glasses’ hard drive, they never need to receive any signals.)
Hopefully we’ll see more of this technology sometime in the near future.
