Systems and methods are provided for establishing a hands-free communication session between a user and an electronic device. A triggering event for establishing a communication session with the user of a navigation application is detected. The triggering event may include identification, by the electronic device, of information from the data source that is desirable to communicate to the user at the present time. A level of importance of the information is determined, and a notification in accordance with the determined level of importance is generated, the notification having a first property in a first instance and a second property in a second instance. When, after generating the notification, permission from the user to establish the communication session is received, a communication session between the electronic device and the user including voice output by the electronic device and voice input by the user may be established.

A method for providing augmented reality based driver assistance. includes: receiving, from a plurality of sensors, information corresponding to an environment external to a vehicle; receiving position information indicating a position of the vehicle; generating an environmental model of the environment external to the vehicle; analyzing data associated with the environmental model; identifying information relevant to a current situation of the vehicle; monitoring at least one driver related parameter of a driver of the vehicle; generating actionable information based on the information relevant to the current situation of the vehicle and the at least one driver related parameter; generating an output based on the actionable information; and outputting the actionable information.

A method and system for providing improved navigation through interactive suggestion of improve solutions along a path of waypoints includes receiving in a user device a destination for a user. Data associated with the destination is transmitted to a network as well as information correlated to a location of the user. Data associated with at least one modified waypoint for an improved navigation solution is received from the network. The modified waypoints are determined in accordance with a set of parameters. Task and notification information are received from the network.

A wearable tactile navigation device and method. The wearable tactile navigation device includes a tactile navigation actuator. The tactile navigation actuator includes a feedback contact and is configured to control the feedback contact based on a direction indication signal to generate a tactile signal having a direction indication. A direction indicated by the tactile signal substantially coincides with a suggested moving direction provided to a user of the wearable tactile navigation device.

A system is provided to minimize, or potentially eliminate, veering of a visually impaired user that is walking along a linear path. The system includes a wearable apparatus to be worn by a user. Further, the system includes a sensor, which measures ambulatory motion of the user along a linear path, that adheres to the wearable apparatus. The system also includes a processor that adheres to the wearable apparatus. The processor determines ambulatory motion deviation from the linear path according to the ambulatory motion being in excess of a predetermined angular threshold, and also determines according to one or more veering detection criteria if the ambulatory motion deviation is a veering motion or a purposeful turn. Finally, the system includes a left non-visual output device and a right non-visual output device that adheres to a right side of the wearable apparatus.

Provided are systems, methods, and media for tactile map-based navigation on a reconfigurable display surface. An example method includes receiving an input destination for a user, generating a navigational route to the destination based on a current location of the user, and transmitting a control signal to the reconfigurable display surface to cause the mobile display surface to render the navigational route on a map of a geographic area. The rendering of the navigational route includes changing topography of the reconfigurable display surface such that a first three-dimensional (3D) shape is formed on the map at a position of the current location and a second 3D shape is formed on the map at a position of the destination.

A haptic presentation apparatus includes an actuator mechanism, a transmission mechanism, a detection unit, and a recognition unit. The transmission mechanism transmits haptic information to a user using a driving force caused by the actuator mechanism. The detection unit detects a load amount applied to the actuator mechanism. The recognition unit recognizes a contact state of the user with respect to the transmission mechanism based on the load amount detected by the detection unit.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage devices for providing directions haptically such that sight and hearing can continue unimpeded. In one exemplary embodiment, a wearable device (such as earphones, ear rings, gloves, glasses, or other wearable objects) configured as disclosed herein receives directions to an intended destination for a user, the directions comprising a movement action and a distance to the movement action. The wearable device has multiple haptic output units and generates, through one of those units, a haptic output based on the directions. This allows the user to receive the directions through touch rather than looking at their mobile device or from audio.

An information processing apparatus that determines a direction to browsed next as a guiding direction with a location of content displayed by a display of the information processing apparatus as a reference location; determines a perceptual strength of each of a plurality of active elements disposed in different locations on or within a casing of the information processing apparatus based on the guiding direction; and controls each of the plurality of active elements based on the perceptual strengths.

User devices, methods, and computer-readable media are described for providing source-of-sound based navigation to a visually-impaired user. A sound detected at a user device of a visually-impaired user is categorized and an approximate location of a source of the sound is determined. A contextual analysis is performed based on the determined sound category such that the results of the contextual analysis indicate whether the visually-impaired user should be directed towards or away from the location of the sound source. An evacuation path is determined in those scenarios in which the user should be directed away from the detected sound and a tactile representation of the evacuation path is generated on a display of the visually-impaired user's device. A navigation path is determined in those scenarios in which the user should be directed towards the detected sound and a corresponding tactile representation thereof is generated.