Why Echo 1 navigates with clock directions, not 'turn left'
Clock-direction cues like 'turn toward 2 o'clock' are the standard blind users already know. How Echo 1's route engine, earcons, and rerouting are built around them.
Sighted navigation apps say 'turn left in 100 meters' and show you an arrow. For a blind pedestrian, 'left' is ambiguous — left of what? Their body? The street? Orientation-and-mobility training has long used a better convention: the clock face. Straight ahead is 12 o'clock, hard right is 3, hard left is 9.
How a turn cue sounds
As the user approaches a turn, Echo 1 plays a distinctive three-beep earcon, then speaks: 'Turn toward 2 o'clock.' The earcon matters — it primes attention so the spoken direction lands on ready ears instead of being half-missed.
The route state machine
- GPS (NEO-7M) supplies position and course-over-ground heading, so directions are relative to where the user is actually facing while walking.
- A state machine tracks progress leg by leg: approaching turn → turning → on segment → arriving.
- Deviate from the route and it recalculates, then re-orients you with a fresh clock direction instead of nagging you to 'return to the route'.
- Arrival is announced explicitly, because 'you have arrived' is only useful if you can trust it.
Navigation guides, safety interrupts
Navigation speech runs at medium priority on the shared speaker. If the safety engine spots an obstacle mid-instruction, the hazard alert preempts the turn cue instantly — a turn can be repeated; a collision cannot be undone.
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