Following the death of a sight-impaired relative, Wataru Chino had no choice but to take action. In response to the tragedy, the Honda EV engineer developed an in-shoe navigation system, dubbed Ashirase (both the name of the product and the name of the company) that allows low-sighted people to use their feet to navigate, rather than cell phones or other visual aids. The tactile navigation system has earned the financial backing of Honda’s Ignition startup incubator program and continues to gain traction.The Ashirase system is two-part, consisting of the dedicated Ashirase navigation app running on the user’s smartphone and a silicone shoe insert cradling a combination motion sensor-electronic compass. Once the user programs their walking destination into the app, the shoe inserts will vibrate in various patterns and tempos — “walk forward” causes vibrations under the balls of the feet, “turn left” rubs the appropriate side of both feet and the speed at which the inse
