By: Kevin Crowley
North, formerly Thalmic Labs, just released Focals, their custom-built glasses with a transparent, holographic display that only the wearer can see. The display floats at arm’s length in front of the wearer, who interacts via a small joystick button worn on their ring finger. Users can see and respond to texts, get turn-by-turn directions, check the weather, request an Uber, talk to Amazon Alexa, and more.
Using the Mapbox Navigation SDKs, Focals goes beyond just showing lines on a map. North has created a custom and immersive navigation experience that combines voice-activated navigation instructions with visual turn-by-turn guidance on the holographic display. Focals also combines the Mapbox Geocoding API and Matrix API to help users easily find nearby points of interest and know how long it will take to walk to each.
By integrating location directly into the visual experience, North is exploring how to provide context and information about the world we’re experiencing — without taking us out of it.
Learn more about Focals here, and start building your own custom navigation experience.
J Kevin Crowley (@JKevinCrowley) | Twitter
North brings navigation directly into your field of vision was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.