SportTechie · Oct 27, 2017
Blind Runner To Navigate NYC Marathon Wearing Haptic Device
On Nov. 5, tens of thousands of runners will line up on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City, the starting point of the world’s largest marathon. Among them will be able-bodied runners, runners with prosthetic legs or other limbs, wheelchair racers, and a blind man wearing a vibrating device that will help him navigate the five-borough course.
That man is Simon Wheatcroft, a British runner who, in partnership with designers in the United States, developed over the course of seven years a wristband that provides haptic feedback to aid visually impaired people, according to the Mirror. The device is called Wayband and is the first product by WearWorks.