Another project aimed at enabling the blind or sight-disabled to live a more independent life has been debuted – it is based on a GPS-enabled computer backpack that detects the wearer’s location and orientation, and plays auditory cues through headphones to indicate which direction the user should be moving to reach their destination. There are a fair few details to thrash out before it’s truly useful or practical – detailed GPS maps of cityscapes being one of them. Furthermore, it will only be of use to people who still have hearing, and it might be cheaper, more empowering and less tech-dependent to teach them to echolocate instead.