Researchers at the University of Bristol have been busy designing a cool new helmet to help the visually impaired who find it difficult to perfect the system of clicks and whistles. The Navigation Helmet has been programmed to automatically transform a map of the surrounding area into sound. This means that all sort of real-life imagery of local obstacles like stairs, trees or even walls as well as cars and others people is maneuvered by the helmet.

So far they have designed the helmet only for the Spanish speaking populace; we do hope that they soon do in other languages too. The helmet makes use of stereo headphones to denote where the objects really are vis-à-vis the wearer and the volume of the sound hints at the distance. Impressively, the device’s 60-degree range of vision helps it to identify objects as far away as 15 feet.

But the Navigation Helmet is not equipped with technology to pick up oncoming traffic. That is just another reason why the researchers need to spend some more time on this innovation. We also think that the overall appearance could also need some work.

Via thefutureofthings & neatorama