Microsoft has come up with a smart way of helping people who are blind or visually impaired to be better aware of where they are. This is done using 3D audio cues, which reach the person via any pair of earphones. Making it happen is an app called Soundscapes, loaded with 3D recorded navigation information that has been crowdsourced. As a person walks around the city, with phone and earphones handy, guidance comes through on street and location, on stores, places of interest, landmarks etc. The 3D makes these cues directional, so if you’re passing by Cee’s Candy Store on your right, you get the cue in your right ear. The directionality of the guidance makes it all the more natural—intersection coming up in front of you, McDonalds coming up on the left, etc. Read more about this technology from Microsoft here. Read More.