GPS has completely transformed how we get around. But other animals have long had their navigation (导航) systems built right in --- like ants and bees.

“We know their eyes are quite sensitive to polarized light (偏振光), and the sky has a particular pattern of polarized light, connected with the position of the sun.” says Barbara Webb, a bioroboticist at the University of Edinburgh. You can see polarized light firsthand if you take a pair of polarized sunglasses and spin them against the sky --- the light passing through the lenses changes. Webb says the insects have polarization like that built into flat sides of their compound eyes. “You can think of it as the equal of having a little polarization directional filter (滤镜) over them or lots of sunglasses pointed in different directions.”

But Webb was curious about whether there's really enough information in the sky to give insects an accurate sense of direction. So her team built a sensor modeled after a desert ant eye and put it under artificial light meant to simulate the sky. They then fed that sensor input into a model meant to copy the brains of desert ants and other insects with a sky compass. And they found that with the insects' natural sensing and processing equipment, they can likely sense compass direction down to just a couple degrees of error.

A system based on that of insects could someday be a cheap, low-energy alternative to GPS. “Insects have very tiny brains, a brain that's using hardly any energy. And yet they're still able to navigate better than we can with GPS, which is a huge system.” Webb is now working on building a robot that can, like the desert ant, use light to get its direction. Although after sundown, it may have to ask for directions.

Walking through an airport is never easy. Now imagine doing it if you were blind. That’s the challenge faced by Chieko Asakawa, a computer scientist. Asakawa often flies between the US and Japan. If traveling alone, she has to be helped at both ends of the flight, which sometimes includes endless waiting. In order to search for a better way, Asakawa has invented a high-tech suitcase that helps get her to the destination with no risk and without difficulty.

Packed with cameras and sensors, the suitcase uses artificial intelligence to map the environment around it. A mobile phone app is used to design a computer program of a destination into the suitcase, which plans a route and directs the user through vibrations(震动) in its handle. The suitcase also features facial recognition technology, which can inform the user if a friend is nearby. It can also flag shops and other places of interest nearby and direct the user to them if necessary.

As a keen runner, Asakawa had Olympic dreams as a child, but a swimming accident at age 11 caused her to gradually lose her sight. As an adult she is already thinking about developing accessibility technology. “I never relax when I travel alone,” she says. “I always think about what technology will help me travel more easily, quicker and more comfortably.” It was this restlessness that led to the AI suitcase.

The suitcase has other applications and could be used to help visually impaired people navigate(导航) cities, while its object-recognition technology can be used to identify colors—useful when buying clothes. Perhaps its best benefit is that it allows users to devote mental energy to other things. With AI providing space awareness, a blind person can do many other things: take a call or listen to the birds. Public spaces become places to be enjoyed, not just navigated. “It will open up many doors for blind people, because we’d be able to go anywhere by ourselves,” says Asakawa. The technology will naturally develop, she predicts, as components(组件) become smaller, lighter and more powerful.

Without new technology, we wouldn’t change our society. A smart suitcase is a great showcase for how AI and technology can change the lives of people with visual disabilities.