Some new approaches to help visually impaired people navigate their way around cities have been developed in Peru and China. Sightwalks is low-tech, using tactile signage on city sidewalks to give complete navigational independence, while the Chinese idea is quite high-tech – a six legged robot dog.

Cemento Sol, the leading Peruvian cement brand, developed its award-winning solution in collaboration with Peru’s largest organizations for the visually impaired. It turns the tactile paving in sidewalks into a navigational system that shows people that they have reached a bank, restaurant, store, or other destination. 

Before now, visually impaired people had to rely on a sighted person to help them locate their destination.

Cemento Sol, the leading Peruvian cement brand, worked with Peru’s largest organizations for the visually impaired, designing new tactile signage to enhance the existing system in order to give complete navigational independence in one of the most important districts in Peru, Miraflores. It took two years of work.

Tiles show the visually impaired the location of banks, grocery stores, restaurants and so on. A horizontal line indicates a tile where specific types of destinations can be identified by the number of lines on the tile.

The tiles have been placed on more than 75,000 square metres of area, benefitting more than half a million people in Lima.

“We created a program to teach them how to use it, and spread the information with braille brochures and audio descriptions.

Sightwalks is an open source project that aims to help 285 million people around the world.

Cemento Sol,  the Circus Grey advertising agency and the Miraflores District Municipality won one Grand Prix, four Gold, two Silver, and one Bronze Lion for ‘Sightwalks at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 

“Going up on the Cannes Lions stage to receive a Lion with applause from colleagues from around the world is thrilling,” CIrcus Grey CCO Piero Oliveri told Little Black Book Online. “But going up every day to collect Lions and win a Grand Prix is the most wonderful experience I ever dreamed of.”

In China, the six legged robot guide dog could one day help vision impaired people live more independently, says the research team that developed it. The robot dog, which is currently being field-tested, is able to navigate its physical environment via cameras and sensors, including recognising traffic light signals, which traditional guide dogs are unable to do.

It can communicate by listening and speaking with a visually impaired operator with artificial intelligence technology incorporated into its voice recognition, route planning capabilities and traffic light identification. It also has six legs, which the researchers said helps it walk smoothly and with maximum stability.