People who are blind can navigate indoors with a phone in their pocket

A pair of smartphone apps can information individuals who are blind by means of unfamiliar buildings, even when their handset is tucked away in a pocket. The researchers behind the know-how say its essential benefit is that the instruments require no pricey infrastructure to be added to buildings.

Roberto Manduchi on the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues created two prototype wayfinding apps. Both use the movement sensors constructed into handsets and an AI to file the person’s…