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The Naked Scientist podcaster Verner Viisainen spotlights how MIT researchers studied vector-based navigation in humans. “What we discovered is actually that we don’t follow the shortest path but actually follow a different kind of optimization criteria which is based on angular deviation,” says Prof. Carlo Ratti.

Aviva Rutkin writes for New Scientist about an infrared navigation system developed by graduate student Dhruv Jain that helps visually impaired people find their way. Roshini, or “Light” in Hindi, gives audio directions to users telling them where to step and warning them of hazards.