Microsoft Is Betting That Bluetooth Will Change the Lives of the Visually Impaired

Even with perfect vision, the knot of packed traffic lanes, busy sidewalks, and road works around London's Victoria Station is a hot mess. For people with impaired sight, it must be a navigational and sensory nightmare. Microsoft is looking to solve that problem. Recently, I visited the company's London offices to test out an ambitious new navigation system for the sight-impaired. Still under development, this new system uses Bluetooth beacons to relay navigational information to users wearing headsets. This can both guide users in the right direction and provide them with local information to make their forays outdoors richer. The way it works is ingenious—but before I tried it, I was invited to experience what a busy city feels like for someone with no vision.

The short answer: it's pretty terrifying. Blindfolded, with a cane and an assistant's elbow for guidance, I walked gingerly around the precinct outside Microsoft. Without sight to distract me, sounds seemed deafening. Every step was a cautious experiment, and each time the ground arrived under my foot it felt like only a provisional success. When I removed the blindfold I was shocked to find that, instead of wandering off into a void, we had walked a full circle. That sight-impaired people manage this sort of thing on a regular basis fills me with admiration.