The North Paw

The North Paw is a compass that allows the wearer to physical feel magnetic north. It differs from a normal visual compass in that it continuously displays direction to the wearer rather than requiring that they occasionally check a device. Due to plasticity of the brain, the constant signal develops into an unerring sense of direction and a persistent knowledge of where the wearer is relative to everywhere else they have been while wearing the North Paw.

Heart Spark

The Heart Spark is a heart-shaped pendant which flashes little lights (light emitting diodes, LEDs) in time with your heart beat. A polar chest strap with transmitter (sold separately) is used to measure your heart beat, which is transmitted wirelessly to the pendant. Read more and order your own here.

Eyes in the Back of Your Back

This project detects and displays motion behind you. The first iteration uses Sonar sensors to detect the movement and an array of pager motors to display it. A prototype has been mostly built, but further development is currently on hold. You can view our progress at our blog on Noisebridge.

Trans-lingual Electric Nerve Stimulator

The Trans-lingual Electric Nerve Stimulator is still in the early stages. However, the eventual idea is to use the device to display speech signals, by mapping a spectrograph of a voice to an electrode array on the tongue in a way that corresponds to places and manners of articulation in speech production. Our blog for The Trans-lingual Electric Nerve Stimulator is on the Noisebridge wiki.

Ultrasonic Listening and Echolocation

We are working on an ultrasonic listening device, which will eventually be extended into an echolocation device. The ultrasonic listening device works by shifting ultrasonic frequencies into audible sound. The echolocation kit will produce an ultrasonic tone and provide any additional tactile or auditory stimulus that the wearer will require in order to “train” an echolocation ability (much research will be required here!). There is a lot of work to do before we even have a prototype, but our progress on echolocation interfacing is also on the Noisebridge wiki.