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

A pair of smartphone apps can guide people who are blind through unfamiliar buildings, even if their handset is tucked away in a pocket. The researchers behind the technology say its crucial advantage is that the tools require no costly infrastructure to be added to buildings.

Roberto Manduchi at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues created two prototype wayfinding apps. Both use the motion sensors built into handsets and an AI to record the user’s…