Touch Nav
Imperial College London, 2024
Concept & Design: Diego Muñoz, Dunni Fadeyi, Gonzalo Morales, Ruta Czaplinska, Vishal Mehta.
Our current relationship with technology almost exclusively relies on audiovisual outputs to understand what the machines we interact with are trying to tell us. Beyond the obvious drawbacks, this presents for the visually and hearing-impaired, this form of communication poses particularly serious risks when we are on the go: focusing on screens as we walk on the streets can lead to accidents and theft — in London, a phone is stolen every 6 minutes, most often snatched from the user's hands as they stare at their screens off-guard. We may feel safer turning off the screen and using a pair of headphones instead when moving around the city, but this can further isolate us from our surroundings, posing additional risks.
Here's a video of our prototype. It's a bit difficult to illustrate a haptic solution through visual means, so I would recommend turning on the sound so you get a better idea of our approach.
Presenting TouchNav, a concept for a navigation app that allows us to know about the next direction to take and the map around us without having to look at the screen! With this, you can keep the phone in your pocket as you navigate the city! Freeing your visual and auditory senses so you can enjoy your surroundings.
Imperial College DesSoc Makeathon Team (From left to right) Dunni Fadeyi, Ruta Czaplinska, Vishal Mehta, Gonzalo Morales, Diego Muñoz.